Kioku no Kusari
by Kishiro Kitsune
Summary: AU. shonen ai later. The sequel to Herutsu no Oukoku but can stand alone The group has been apart for a year and when they regroup it's to find a new enemy has reared its head. But a lot has changed in that year and they soon find it's not that easy.
1. Chapter 1: Cloaked in Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

(Anyone who has read 'Herutsu no Oukoku' can skip this little note.)

To those who haven't read the first story "Herutsu no Oukoku", you don't have to (unless you really want to). Basically, in the first story I rewrote the events of the first game only I had Kairi, Demyx, Namine, and Axel traveling with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Axel and Sora were searching for their best friends (Roxas and Riku) and Demyx and Kairi were searching for a way to get home. At the end of the story, it wasn't Sora who lost his heart protecting Kairi; it was Namine.

That's about it.

For this one I'm hoping to break away from the game and do my own thing, although there will be some scenes that I include. (particularly toward the end)

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 1: Cloaked in Darkness_

He felt as if he were floating in a sea of darkness. All around him was a cloying, freezing blackness that allowed no room for anything else to be seen; not even himself. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. He stained to hear anything at all that would give him comfort or at least an idea as to where he was, but there was nothing.

He revised his opinion. It wasn't a sea of darkness, but a sea of nothingness.

Ghosts of images - of people and places - began to drift past. There was a young boy with brown hair playing by himself on a beach. A dark cave with scribbled drawings. And then a woman sitting in the dark crying. A young red-haired boy with a golden furred puppy. A trio of kids sitting around in a small room.

The images began moving faster until they were whipping past him in a blur. Then they stopped and faded away. He found himself once again surrounded by the cold nothingness.

The gentle sound of waves washing up over a sandy beach soon reached his ears and a pinprick of light appeared on the horizon, growing larger the higher it rose in the sky. Shadowy tendrils lifted him into a standing position as warm sand rose up under his feet and slithered between his toes. Sand and water stretched as far as the eye could see, broken only by the cloudless blue sky.

"Where… am I?" He asked. His voice had a light, child-like quality to it with a sandpapered edge. "Who am I?" He closed his cerulean blue eyes in thought, trying to picture anything that had to do with who he was or where he came from.

"_Roxas!" _A flicker of red dashed before his eyelids. _"Wait! Come back!"_ Sad green eyes briefly came into view.

"Roxas." He repeated, finding the sound of the name odd coming from his own lips. He opened his eyes and stared straight ahead, confused. "Is that _my _name?"

A new image appeared on the edge of the water. A little boy with light, golden-brown hair sat with his feet in the water. Tears rolled down his cheeks as other ghostly forms walked by, laughing and talking and paying no attention to the small boy. That was until a boy with red hair ran up to him, his sandals sliding in the sand.

"_Hey, the last train will be leaving soon! You should go home." _He said.

The blonde boy looked up at him, fresh tears pricking at his eyes. _"B-but I don't know where I am! I don't know how to get home."_

"_Well here, I'll help you."_ The redhead said, holding out a hand.

The blonde sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand before letting the redhead help him up. He continued to cling to the hand even as they began to walk away from the water, but the redhead didn't seem to mind.

"_So, do you know your street?"_ The redhead asked.

The blonde nodded. _"Uh-huh, Destiny Lane."_

The redhead blinked in confusion. _"Destiny Lane?"_ He repeated. _"I've never heard of that. Is it in Sunset somewhere? Or maybe Sunrise?"_

"_Nuh-uh."_ The blonde shook his head. _"It's in Destiny Islands."_

The redhead frowned._ "I've never heard of that place. We'll have to go ask my mom if she's heard of it. You can stay with me until we find your home! I can share all my toys with you! It'll be like a sleepover!"_

"_I- I've never had a sleepover before."_ The blonde admitted, looking up at the redhead_. "Is it fun?"_

The redhead nodded. _"Lots and lots!"_ He said happily.

The blonde beamed up at him, his blue eyes lighting up. No sign of tears remained aside from a slight redness around his eyes. _"So, uh, what's your name?"_

"_My momma always says its rude to ask for someone's name and not give your own." _The redhead remarked, not unkindly.

The blonde blushed and looked down at the sand_. "S-sorry. I'm Roxas."_

A loud roaring drowned out the redheads reply and the older Roxas turned around in time for wall of water to crash down onto him, filling his mouth, ears, and eyes with salty ocean water. He thrashed around, struggling to get to the top so he could breath. He tried to yell for help, but as soon as he opened his mouth the water rushed in, choking him.

"_Roxas!" _Someone called his name. _"Hey, Roxas! Wake up, man!"_

Roxas gasped as his eyes snapped open. He was back in his room and there at the foot of his bed were two of his friends, Pence and Olette. The brunette girl was looking at him nervously and was biting her lower lip. The rounded brunet boy was looking at him in awe.

He looked up and there was Hayner leaning over him with a murderous scowl on his face and a bruise forming on his cheek.

"What the hell is with you, man?" Hayner demanded.

"What's wrong?" Roxas asked, confused.

"You just punched Hayner clear across the room!" Pence exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"I hit him?" Roxas asked. "But… how? I was asleep."

"It must have been some dream you were having." Pence said. "Too bad about your mirror, though."

Roxas looked across the room to see his fractured reflection in the broken full-length mirror. "Yeah, too bad…"

* * *

Heavy boots clunked against the stone floor and the noise bounced off of the walls, creating an echo. A black cloak clung to the being's thin form, showing off a feminine figure. She paused outside of the kitchen to watch three of her drunken allies as they held their weekly drinking contest before she moved on.

'_Idiots.' _She thought, rolling her icy blue eyes. She eventually reached the library and walked in, slamming the door behind her. Looking around, she saw only her silvery-blue haired ally sitting at a table reading a huge book.

"Mnexina." He greeted with no obvious emotion in his voice. "Your mission went well?"

Mnexina pushed back her hood and flipped her darkened blonde hair out from under her coat. "As well as expected. I've already reported to the Superior."

"Hn." Zexion closed his book and stood, easily tucking it within his cloak. "There's something you should see."

If Mnexina was at all interested, she didn't let it show. "I have two free hours." She told him.

"That's more than I need." Zexion replied. "I left it in my room."

Silently, the two left the library using a portal and reappeared in Nobody's Hall where the bedrooms were. Starting at number two, the door numbers went all the way down to number thirteen. A few of the doors were broken or blocked off from the members that had already been defeated by the keyblade wielders.

Zexion opened the door numbered six and walked in. Mnexina followed and shut the door behind her. The silence stretched on while Zexion looked around the room. Then he nodded.

Mnexina broke the silence with a sigh of relief as she flopped down onto his bed. She began peeling off her gloves. "This place is so gloomy. It's almost a pity that Marluxia isn't still around. At least then there was a bit of color, even if some of those plants were really creepy."

"If he were still around then the rest of us would be gone." Zexion reminded, sitting down beside her. "You weren't there at Castle Oblivion." He raised a hand to touch his right shoulder, recalling the pain of having Riku's keyblade rip through the flesh.

"Does it still hurt?" Mnexina asked.

"'A Nobody feels no pain'." Zexion quoted from his readings.

"Bullshit." Mnexina growled. "Does it still hurt?"

Zexion hesitated a moment and then nodded.

"Coat off." Mnexina instructed, leaving no room for argument. "Now."

Zexion frowned. "It'll be fi--"

"Take it off or I'll do it myself." She threatened.

"_Fine." _Zexion grumpily muttered, removing his hand from his shoulder to grasp the zipper and pull it down so he could shrug off the top half of his coat.

Mnexina frowned when she saw that the only thing covering the wound was a mere few layers of gauze. She carefully removed the thin layers, ignoring Zexion's protests. She gasped when she saw the black vapors drifting up from the wound.

"You're fading!" She whispered in shock. "Why didn't you tell me? Does the Superior know?"

"I knew you'd worry too much. And he does know."

"Then why the hell doesn't he do something?! And he's still sending you out on missions!"

"Easy ones." He said, picking up the gauze. "He's saving us, don't you see? He'll send us out on small, pointless missions and save us until the very end and try and use us to wear down the keyblade master."

"We're all expendable." Mnexina muttered, her eyes narrowed in anger. "We're just tools to him. Unpredictable ones, but tools never-the-less." She slipped her hand into her coat and withdrew a bottle. "Hold still. This may sting a little, but it'll help." She squirted some directly onto the wound, taking some pleasure in the range of emotions that crossed his face.

"Damn," Zexion groaned when she began massaging in the salve.

Mnexina chuckled. "Feel better?"

Zexion didn't bother to answer and instead leaned into her touch. It wasn't long before he found himself drifting off to sleep. The next thing he knew, Mnexina was shaking him awake and his shoulder was freshly bandaged.

"I have to leave soon." Mnexina said, capping her bottle and slipping it back into her coat. "That stupid virtual Twilight Town takes forever to hack into. Diz was nothing if not thorough. The bastard."

Zexion chuckled. "I bet Roxas isn't helping matters."

Mnexina shrugged. "I don't know yet. I haven't gotten to go in and talk to him. I just needed to go in and find the weakest part of the program so I could take Roxas there and be able to break him out. It may be more difficult than I thought."

"How will you approach him? You know he'll run if you just jump in there and try to whisk him away." Zexion said.

"I know." Mnexina said. "I'm going to put myself in that silly white dress my other wore and appear around town a bit before I actually approach him."

"Sounds smart. Will it work?"

"We'll find out." She said, standing. "I'll be out there for as long as I can. If Diz finds me then I'll be back early."

"You're as thin as a rail. He won't find you."

Mnexina paused in the middle of pulling on a glove to lightly smack Zexion's arm. "That's mean." She teased. "You hurt my feelings."

"We're Nobodies." Zexion said mechanically.

Mnexina simply waved off the statement as she conjured up a portal and stepped through. "Doesn't mean we don't feel." She said as it closed behind her.

* * *

Roxas sighed as he fell backwards onto his bed. He closed his eyes for a moment and marveled over the softness of his blankets and the sound of the soft whirring of his fish lamp. "Man, what a day." He muttered tiredly. "I punched Hayner across the room in my sleep, everyone around town blames us for stolen photos, I get into a fight with Seifer and then end up chasing that strange white… _thing, _and to top it all off, I pass out in front of that creepy old mansion and _Seifer _and his gang find me and snap a photo." He weakly lifts his hand and bangs it against his comforter.

"_Sounds rough." _

Roxas sat up quickly and looked around the room. Seeing nothing, he began to lay back down. That was when he caught sight of a red-haired guy sitting there in his room.

"What!" He yelped, jumping out of bed. When he did that, the ghostly form vanished, leaving him all alone once again. His looked around the room frantically, searching for anything that looked the slightest bit out of place. He groaned in frustration when he saw nothing else. "What the hell is going on?" He asked.

There was no reply.

He lay there for a few minutes and then got up and slipped on his shoes. Grabbing his short-sleeved jacket, he left his room and went outside. He looked up and down the street and then picked a direction and started walking.

'_Who is he?' _He wondered, recalling the red-haired boy from his dreams. _'I feel like I should know him and that he should be here with me. But I don't can't even picture his face! Just those green eyes…' _He sighed and stopped walking. "What is happening to me? Why can't I remember?"

Again, there was no reply. Not that he expected one. In fact, he was relieved to get no reply.

"Excuse me?"

Roxas nearly jumped a foot in the air, but controlled himself enough to calmly turn around and face the person talking to him. It was a pretty, young girl dressed in white. "Can I help you with something?" He asked, finding it weird that she was out at that time of night.

"I got a little turned around." She said sheepishly. "Could you point out the direction of the Sandlot?"

"I can take you there if you'd like." Roxas offered.

She shook her head. "No, that's okay. I don't want to take up much of your time."

"It's no problem, really." Roxas said, looking around. He pointed out a path with steps that was just across the street. "The road to the Sandlot is right over there. Just follow it and you'll be there in no time."

The girl smiled and thanked him before going on her way.

Roxas watched her leave. It wasn't until she disappeared around the corner that he realized that he forgot to get her name. "That was odd." He murmured. _'Maybe I'll see her tomorrow.'_

He continued along on his walk until he came to the Usual Spot, where he fell asleep on the couch.

* * *

_Roxas could hear voices at the end of the path he was walking down. He ducked behind a tree when he reached the top of the dark hill and watched as five people, a dog, and a duck fought the small army of heartless that surrounded them._

_"Get out of the way, Axel!" A brunet boy yelled at the red-haired fire wielder. _

_"You're the one in the way!" The redhead yelled back. "You move!"_

_"No, you!" The brunet pushed him out of the way and swatted away a Shadow as it leaped through the air toward him. A circular, spiked weapon flew through the air and ripped through the heartless and then returned to Axel's hand._

_"Heh, what would you do without me?" He bragged._

_"I'd be a lot better off, that's for sure!" The brunet said angrily._

_"Why don't both of you shut up and argue over who's better than who when we're done fighting!" A blond boy interrupted, rolling up a ball of water and then throwing it at the heartless. "We're kind of outnumbered right now, if you hadn't noticed!"_

_"Anyone have a plan?" The girl in white asked._

_Roxas rolled his eyes. _'How about less talking and more fighting? That might help you not get killed.' _He stared at the redhead for a moment. _'Axel... I wish I could help you.' _He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. _'What am I thinking? I don't want to help them. They're the enemy!'

_"Kairi, watch out!" Axel yelled, spotting a heartless sneaking up on the pretty auburn-haired girl._

_Roxas felt a twinge of jealously shoot through his chest as Axel ran over to help Kairi. He brushed the feeling aside, telling himself it was nothing he should be concerned about._

_Kairi spun around, hoping to block the attack with her keyblade. Instead, the heartless's bladed claws sliced right through her long hair. The long braid landed with a 'pllmmph' sound, but she didn't let it distract her from continuing to fight. A lone tear fell down her cheek at the loss of her hair._

'I feel... kind of bad for her.'_ Roxas couldn't help but think. He clenched his fists and turned away. '_Watching them makes me ill. I don't care what the Superior says; I'm leaving.'_ He walked quickly away from the battle and summoned a portal to take him away._

_"That boy... why does he look like me?"_

* * *

"I met Roxas."

Zexion stared at Mnexina for a moment, trying to compute what she was saying. Then he yawned and tried to close his door, but she blocked him from doing so.

"It's three in the morning." He groused, narrowing his eyes. "Can't this wait?"

"No." Mnexina said, shoving past him.

Zexion rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and shut the door before turning around. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the younger nobody with his one uncovered eye.

Mnexina took her customary seat on his bed, but instead of looking him in the eye, like usual, she stared down at the carpet. "Zex…" She looked up at him with a confused expression on her face. "I think Roxas has a heart."

Zexion frowned. "We've been over this. Nobody's do not--"

"I know!" She interrupted. "I know we don't have hearts! But I think Roxas _does._ He feels different from the rest of the program; _warmer._"

"That's because Diz managed to convert his body into data and send him into the computer."

"But _I_ didn't feel that way."

"What are you suggesting?"

Mnexina hesitated a moment, biting her lower lip. "I think… I think that Roxas is a Somebody, not a Nobody."

Zexion gave a frustrated sigh and uncrossed his arms before he joined her on the bed. "That's impossible. Roxas is Sora's Nobody. If Roxas were a Somebody, then Sora would be the Nobody. We would know if Sora was a Nobody, because it would have been him that Xemnas brought here."

"I guess you're right." Mnexina murmured. "It's just kind of weird if you think about it. Hey, Zex?"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry, _Zexion._"

"Better. So what are you thinking now?"

Mnexina fisted her hands in the white dress. "When did Sora lose his heart?"

"You'd have to ask the Superior that." Zexion said. "But not now. It's too late. You know how cranky he gets when you wake him up too early."

A hint of a smile appeared on Mnexina's face. "Trust me, I have no desire to see Xemnas in his pajama's again. Although the 'mansex' that Xigbar sewed onto the butt is very entertaining. Did he ever find out about that?"

Zexion chuckled. "Not yet."

"Hmm…" Mnexina stood and walked over to the door. "Maybe someone should let that little piece of information slip to him."

"And they call _me _the Cloaked Schemer." Zexion remarked. "You're even worse."

Mnexina chuckled as she opened the door. "Good night." She said as she left.

* * *

'_Come to the old mansion.'_

Roxas panted as he dashed through the forest. Behind him, bizarre white creatures swirled around in confusion patterns, chasing after him. In one hand he held a large key, which he used to beat them off when they got too close.

He stumbled over the roots of the trees as he weaved around them, hoping to lose the creatures. One darted in front of him and then zoomed toward him. "Back off!" He yelled, swinging the key at it. The key easily sliced through it, leaving a few bubbles floating in the air.

Roxas continued on, doing the same to any of the white creatures that got in his way. Finally he found himself at the gate in front of the mansion. "Don't call me here and then lock me out!" He yelled angrily.

"Roxas, use the keyblade!"

He looked past the gate to see the girl in white - Naminé, she said her name was - standing on the front porch, urging him on.

"Hurry!" She yelled, before she turned around and ran into the building.

"Key… blade?" Roxas asked, looking down at the oddly shaped weapon. "I guess that makes sense." He lifted it up and pointed it to the lock on the gate. "Okay, lets see what you can do." He closed his eyes and willed the keyblade to unlock the gate.

* * *

"_So, you're really leaving?"_

_Roxas paused and lifted his hands away from his body, ready to summon his two keyblades at a moment's notice._

_Mnexina stepped out of the shadows, her icy blue eyes burning with rage. "You can't leave the organization like this! Not now! They'll kill you!"_

"_Let them come." Roxas said carelessly._

"_Come back with me. Whatever it is that's bothering you we can work out together!"_

"_No. I'm doing this on my own. I have to find out who I am." _

_

* * *

_

Roxas opened his eyes and was surprised to see that the gate was open. He glanced back to see three white creatures chasing after him. _'Nobodies.' _His mind supplied.

Instinctively, he dashed through the gate and barreled through the front door of the mansion, tripping over the threshold and falling over. The door slammed shut behind him as he got to his feet and looked around, taking in the crumbling state of the once-beautiful place. He found his eyes drawn to the staircase on the right and began walking toward it before a similar pull directed his attention to the staircase on the left.

"Roxas, this way!" The girl in white called.

Roxas looked back over to the right stairs in time to watch her disappear into a room at the end of the short hall. "Wait up!" He called, running up the stairs.

His keyblade faded away as he ran down the hallway and then through the door. He stopped and looked around the room, blinking his eyes at the brightness of the sun glinting off of all the white. His eyes landed on the girl sitting at the table.

"Hello, Roxas." She said with a soft smile.

"Uh, hey." Roxas greeted unsurely. "How do you know my name? Who are you really?"

"My real name is Mnexina. And I know your name because I was at the Struggle Tournament yesterday." She said. "Now I have a question for you."

"Okay." Roxas said, sitting down at the other end of the table. "What is it?"

"What do you think of all the weird things that have been happening around town?"

Roxas stared at her in surprise, his mouth hanging open for a few seconds. "You noticed too?" He asked. "I thought I was the only one! My friends keep giving me weird looks whenever I try and talk to them about the weird things going on."

"What would you say if I told you that this whole town; that everything you know isn't real?" Mnexina asked.

"But that's crazy." Roxas said, confused. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Tell me, can you remember what your teachers look like?" Mnexina asked calmly. "Or even what Twilight Beach looks like? What about what you did just last week? Or the whole summer? Don't you think it's odd that all you can remember are these past six days?"

Roxas opened his mouth to tell her exactly what his teachers looked like and what he'd been doing all summer, only to find out that he couldn't remember. He frowned and try to think back to what he had been doing even the day before the whole mess started.

"You don't remember, do you." Mnexina stated, not unkindly.

"No… I don't."

"Roxas-" Mnexina stopped talking when the air around her rippled and distorted. She stood, her eyes changing from her Somebody's sky blue to her own icy blue. "Not this time, Diz!" She yelled. "Roxas," She looked over at him. "Do you trust me?"

"Huh?"

"Do you trust me?!"

"I guess-"

"Follow me." Mnexina said, running over to him and grabbing his arm.

The two of them raced out of the room and when they got to the stairs, Mnexina shoved Roxas ahead and summoned her weapon - a glistening silver chain - and swung it into the distorted area as her clothes morphed into her usual black cloak. "Back off!" She yelled, tugging back on the chain when it caught on something.

The distorted area popped, much like a large bubble, and sent Mnexina and Roxas tumbling down the stairs.

Mnexina quickly slung her chain around her waist and then grabbed Roxas's hand and pulled him out of the mansion and out across the front yard. In the woods, they dropped behind a bunch of bushes to take a quick rest.

"What was that?" Roxas asked. "What's going on?"

"That was one of Diz's programs that are designed to get rid of any intruders; like me." Mnexina said. "Diz is the one who trapped you here in this virtual world. He believes he can use you to awaken the keyblade master."

"And can he?"

Mnexina hesitated. "I don't know. I would rather not find out. To awaken the keyblade master would mean your disappearance, and I don't want that. Let me make a deal with you; you can come with me out of this place and we can go somewhere safe to talk, or you can stay here until Diz figures out what to do with you. It's your choice."

Roxas thought about it for a minute. "Is there a real Twilight Town?"

Mnexina nodded.

Roxas stared at the ground for a moment and clenched his fists. "Alright, I'll go with you. But only if we go to the real Twilight Town."

"Deal." Mnexina said automatically. She held out her arm and summoned a portal. "Hurry. Diz will have noticed that."

Roxas nodded and rushed through. Mnexina was quick to follow, making sure to scramble the portal as it closed behind her.

'_Good luck in finding us now, you bastard.' _She smirked triumphantly, imagining the look on Diz's face at his discovery of Roxas's disappearance. _'Mnexina, two; Diz, zero.'_

* * *

End chapter 1

* * *

Next chapter we go visit Kairi in her world. In chapter 3 I'll be jumping back over to Mnexina and Roxas and hopefully get a chance to introduce the rest of the organization. So, the odd chapters will be spent with the "bad guys" and the even chapters will be with the "good guys". At least, it'll be that way for a little while. The way my plans are so far I'll end up splitting away from the pattern.


	2. Chapter 2: Familiarity

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 2: Familiarity_

Kairi sighed as she dropped her school bag just inside the front door. "I'm home!" She called out to the empty house. _'No one's here. Again.' _She thought sadly, dropping her keys on the table beside a note that her mom left her. She didn't bother reading it, already knowing that she would just be reading the same thing her mom always wrote.

_Your father and I are on a business trip. We'll be back in a week or two. There's enough food in the refrigerator to last a week and some extra money in the drawer for take-out or pizza. Be good._

That was it. No 'love, mom' or even just a plain and simple 'mom'. Just a 'be good'.

"Right, like I don't know to be good." Kairi muttered, rolling her eyes. "What does she think I'm going to do? Throw a wild party and let people have orgies in the front yard? Sheesh." She walked down the hall into the living room where she kicked off her shoes and laid down on the couch, burying her face in the cushions. "Guess it's just you and me, Whiskers." Her voice was muffled, but still understandable.

"Mrrow." An old black and white cat replied, before leaping down from his perch and padding out of the room.

"Thanks, buddy." Kairi muttered sarcastically. She sat up and slumped against the couch, staring dismally at the blank television screen. "I wonder how Axel and Demyx and the others are doing. It's been over a year, hasn't it?" She winced as a sharp pain snapped across the side of her head.

"_Naminé?" _An unfamiliar voice echoed in the room.

Kairi leapt to her feet, her eyes darting around for the person belonging to the voice. "Who's there?" She asked. "And that's not my name! My name's Kairi."

"_Kairi? That… sounds familiar. You… you know that boy."_

Kairi frowned. "Boy?" She asked. "What boy? Please, a name?"

"_I'm Roxas."_

"Okay, Roxas, but what was his name?"

"_You __**forgot**__ my name?" _A second voice asked, sounding surprised. _"Thanks a lot, Kairi. Okay, guess I can give you a hint; Starts with an 'S'."_

"Starts with an 'S'." Kairi repeated. Then she gasped, her eyes going wide. "Wait a second! How do you know Naminé?!" She waited with bated breath for a reply and sighed in disappointment when she heard nothing else. "Could she be… alive? And… that boy. I know who he is. I can't picture him. Why can't I picture him? Or remember his name? It's important; I know it is." She backed up and sat down on the couch, cradling her head in her hands.

"Mrrowow?" Her cat questioned, jumping up on the couch beside her.

"Remember that boy I told you about?" She asked Whiskers. "I wrote a letter to him today saying that no matter where he is, I will find him one day. Heh, it's silly. But I know it'll reach him, even though I didn't remember his name at the time." She stood up and walked over to her window to look out at the sky. A smile spread across her face as she recalled watching a bottle carry her letter out into the ocean. "Starts with an 'S'. Right, _Sora_?"

A streak of light shot across the sky in her direction and she gasped. _'A shooting star?' _She wondered.

The streak of light grew into a shimmering ball the closer it got to her and she didn't have to see the multicolored form of it to know what it was. "A gummy ship!" She exclaimed. "It's Sora! He's finally here!"

Feeling giddy, she ran outside and waved her arms in the air. She laughed when the craft zoomed over her head, did a barrel roll, and then turned around to land gently in her front yard.

The gummy ship door opened and Demyx stumbled out, looking ill. He collected himself enough to grin at Kairi before leaning over a nearby bush to empty the contents of his stomach.

"You lightweight." Axel drawled, stepping off of the ship.

"Oh, shut up! You are _so _not driving any more, you… you… crazy driver person!" Demyx yelled, shaking his fist. He paled and took a step back before leaning over the bush again.

Kairi winced and then looked hopefully at the gummy ship, waiting for Sora to walk down and smile one of his trademark heartwarming smiles.

"He's not there." Axel said when he noticed where she was looking. "It's just me and Demyx right now. Matter of fact, I don't know where the hell Sora is. Demyx wanted to come find you first. Guess he figured that three pairs of eyes are better than two. Ain't that right, mullet boy?"

Demyx straightened up and glared at the redhead. "Stuff it, Axel."

"Are you two okay?" Kairi asked, not remembering the two of them fighting like that on their last adventure together.

"You try being stuck alone with Axel for _five days._" Demyx growled, still glaring at Axel. "He's insane! He lights things on fire for his own amusement and then does barrel rolls and expects me to be able to shoot down the Space heartless! It is not possible!"

"At least I don't smell like wet dog!" Axel snapped.

"Shut up!" Kairi yelled, shooting a bolt of lightning between them for emphasis. She crossed her arms over his chest and gave them a look that had them both wanting to cower in fear. "Axel, you don't smell like roses yourself, so leave Demyx alone. Now," She silenced the redhead with a glare when he opened his mouth to say something. "_Now, _I can understand you two being at each other's throats after being in each other's company for five days straight and probably with little sleep. That's why you two are going to come inside, take showers, eat dinner, and then _sleep._ Got that?"

"Yeah, yeah. I got it memorized." Axel muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Demyx?"

The blond quickly nodded. "Uh-huh. Can I have the first shower?"

"Be my guest." Kairi said, dropping the serious tone from her voice. "Lets go inside before my neighbors see you."

The two boys relaxed and followed her inside.

Axel couldn't help but remark, "What? Are you afraid your reputation will be ruined if we're seen with you?"

Kairi grinned. "No, it's more along the lines of my neighbors calling the police and having you arrested."

"Smart neighbors." Demyx said with a grin.

Kairi happily showed them where the shower and laundry rooms were and then left them to go work on making dinner. It felt nice to have someone else to cook for instead of just herself and her cat, especially since her cat would eat anything, no matter how it tasted.

It wasn't long before the smell of food began wafting from the kitchen and the sound of something frying could be heard. Demyx leaned against the doorway with a towel draped around his neck, watching as Kairi danced around the kitchen wearing a frilly pink apron over her school uniform.

She spun around and caught sight of Demyx. She let out a squeak and nearly fell over. "How long have you been standing there?" She asked.

"Not too long." Demyx said, grinning. "Whatcha making?"

Kairi turned back to the stove, fighting off her embarrassment at being caught dancing around. "Oh, uh, chicken. And fruit salad. And macaroni." She cleared her throat. "So are you two from the same world?"

"Yup." Demyx said cheerfully. "Different parts of it, though. Like, _completely _different parts. He's a city boy and I'm a county boy. Although I'm sure that compared to some cities what he lives in is more like a town. I guess that's why it's called 'Twilight Town' and not 'Twilight City', huh?"

"Could be." Kairi said. "So, you guys really haven't heard from Sora?"

"That's right." Demyx said, nodding.

"But then where did you get a gummy ship? Spare pieces?" She asked.

"Exactly." He chirped. "So it's kind of small and low on defense because we had an excess amount of laser gummy's. We're going to try and find Hollow Bastion next so we can talk to Cid and see if he'll help us fix it up. Axel thinks they might know where Sora is."

"If anyone would, it would be them."

Kairi nodded. "Yeah." She turned her attention back to the food, turning off the stove and removing the pot of macaroni from the burner.

Demyx took a seat at the kitchen table while Kairi finished fixing their dinner, and after a while Axel traipsed down the stairs and joined them. Dinner was eaten slowly, as they spent most of the time talking about what they'd been doing all year.

Axel had been dividing his time up between his job, school, and spending time with Demyx to get the gummy ship built. Demyx's schedule was similar, except he also had his music activities to do. And Kairi had been preparing for their next adventure by staying in shape and taking a few classes to help her fighting skills.

After dinner they cleaned up and then went to bed so they could get an early start in the morning. Kairi gave Axel her bed and sent Demyx to the spare bedroom while she took her parent's room.

She was up early the next morning to pack up some necessities and make breakfast. Demyx was up next, eagerly bouncing around the house trying to help. His excitement was contagious, and soon he and Kairi were singing childhood songs together.

"What. The. Hell." Axel growled, glaring at the two.

Kairi and Demyx paused and looked over at the redhead, who looked as though he had gotten into a fight with his hairbrush and had lost.

"Good morning, sunshine." Kairi greeted, guessing that Axel wasn't much of a morning person. Or maybe it was the singing that put him in a bad mood. "You're just in time for breakfast."

"Not hungry." Axel grumbled as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Nonsense." Kairi said, scraping eggs off a pan and onto a plate. She grabbed a piece of buttered toast from Demyx's ever-growing stack and then walked over and set the plate down in front of Axel. "You have to eat something before we go." She glanced over at Demyx and sighed when she saw he was still making toast. "I think we have enough now."

"But the toaster is so _cool_!" Demyx exclaimed. "It makes it _fun _to make toast!"

"We can take it with us if you want to."

Before Kairi even finished her sentence, Demyx had the high-tech toaster unplugged and happily set it beside the bag of food they had been packing.

"I think that'll do it." He chirped. "We should have enough food to last us at least a week if we be careful. We shouldn't need more than that."

"It shouldn't take us too long to get to Hollow Bastion, should it?" Kairi asked.

"We don't have a good navigation system." Axel spoke up. "It was pure luck that we found you."

"But we think we know which way to go." Demyx added in. "Although, chances are that if we're off by even a little bit we won't come anywhere close to the world. If we get too lost we should be able to find our way back here or back to Twilight Town. Those are the only world locations entered into the system."

"That's… not good." Kairi said, frowning. "Is there a way to fix that?"

Demyx shrugged. "That's why we're going to go talk to Cid. He is the gummy ship expert, after all."

"Are we just going to sit around and talk all day, or are we going to go?" Axel asked, getting up from the table. "I thought we were going to take off early."

"I was afraid if we woke you up any earlier that you would have shot us or something." Kairi said teasingly. "We can go as soon as we get everything loaded up."

Demyx scooped up the toaster and the bag of food and left for the gummy ship while Kairi took Axel's plate and cleaned it off before putting it in the dish washer and starting it up. Then both of them hurried after Demyx, locking the door behind them.

Moments later, the gummy ship came to life, rising up into the air and pointing it's nose to the sky. There was a thunderous noise as it shot off into the air and rocketed away into the sky.

* * *

Day three dawned with much trepidation for the three travelers. So far they have found no sign of even one world near to them, and that had them worried. Their supply of food and water was starting to run low, thanks to Axel and his high metabolism, which Kairi had forgotten to take into account while packing food, and Demyx requiring a lot of water.

"You two are possibly the most difficult men in all the worlds." Kairi muttered, rolling her eyes.

Demyx quickly drained the last bit of water in the bottle and then looked over at her. "How's that?"

"You don't have a navigation system, you have no actual place to store food properly, you charge head-on into battles even when we're _somehow _running low on fire-power." She stopped talking in order to spin the wheel around and avoid a asteroid. "Do I have to go on?"

"I guess not." Demyx shrugged. "And all of that isn't all that bad. We're not _completely _lost and we have enough food to last another couple of days."

"The only reason we're not completely lost is because I have us turned to fly to Twilight Town. It's no wonder you and Axel started fighting like cats and dogs by the time you got to my world. You have no idea what you're doing."

"Hey! I take offense to that!" Demyx said, sitting up straight. "We do know what we're doing! We flew this thing there in one piece, didn't we? That takes skill!"

Kairi held her tongue for a moment so she wouldn't say something she'd regret. She sighed and directed the ship around another asteroid. "Alright, maybe you do know what you're doing. It just takes you a little longer to figure out how to do it right." She winked at him to show that she was only teasing.

Demyx grinned at her. "And I suppose you always know what to do?"

"What the two of you lack is a little something called common sense." She said, smiling. "That and the two of you together only make up half a brain."

"So who's the other half? You?"

"Maybe. I guess we'd better include Sora too, huh?"

"So that means all of us only equal to one-fourth of a brain."

The two paused a moment to look at each other.

"Yeah," Kairi said, slowly nodding. "That sounds about right."

The door slid open and Axel stepped into the cockpit looking amused. "I don't even have to work to make fun of you guys anymore; you do it all on your own. You realize that takes all of the fun out of it, right?"

"Why do you think we do it?" Kairi asked, setting the ship to autopilot so she could get up and stretch. "Is it your turn to drive already?"

"It's been two hours." Axel replied.

The two squeezed past each other and Axel took a seat behind the wheel. "Hey, why are we going to Twilight Town? We're suppose to be looking for Hollow Bastion!"

"We're running low on supplies and need to find a world soon. Going back to my world would only put us a step behind." Kairi said. "Which reminds me, we're going to have to start cutting back on how much we eat. There's no telling how long it'll take to get to Twilight Town."

"Three days at the most." Demyx spoke up. "Now that we know where we're going, it won't take long."

A comfortable silence fell upon the cabin as Kairi left to go get some sleep before her next shift came up. The reassurance of going in a direction they knew a world was in gave her some comfort and made it easier for her to drift off.

* * *

"Kairi!" Demyx shouted, running back into the cabin. "Kairi, wake up!"

Kairi blearily looked around as she sat up and then fumbled around for her glasses before remembering that she no longer needed them. She blinked away her sleepiness and stared at Demyx. "What's going on? What'd you do?"

"We found a world!" Demyx happily exclaimed, barely able to contain his joy. "And it's one we know! It's Olympus!"

On their last voyage around the worlds, Olympus quickly became a favorite place to stop when they needed a little break. It was one of the few places where heartless weren't waiting to attack them at every corner. At the same time, the tournaments created a wonderful opportunity to train or work off anger and frustration. They even had Phil there to shout out advice, although most of it was useless.

"We can get supplies!" Kairi happily said. "And see Hercules and Phil again. I hope they're doing well."

"Lets go see." Demyx turned and bounded out of the cabin.

Kairi grabbed her munny pouch from the bedside table and then hurried after him. As she exited the gummy ship, a bright light surrounded her before abruptly disappearing as soon as her feet hit the ground.

"Well, I guess this explains what that weird gummy block does." Demyx remarked.

Kairi looked over at him and Axel and had to choke back a giggle. Axel stood there plucking at his white toga in distaste while Demyx checked himself out in his pale blue one.

"Don't laugh. You look just as stupid as us." Axel told her, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kairi blinked in surprise and then looked down at the unfamiliar, short, pink dress she was wearing.

"Kairi doesn't look stupid." Demyx chastised. "She looks pretty."

She giggled and flipped her hair over her shoulder before flashing Demyx a pretty smile. "Thanks."

Axel mimed throwing up. "If you two are going to flirt, then wait until I'm not around." He said. "Or at least until we figure out where the hell we are, because this is not the coliseum."

The other two looked around, taking in the dark cavern-like place they were stuck in. Dark waters lapped at the stone pathway they were standing on, sending chills down Kairi's spine. They looked around for a way out of the place, dismissing the two large stone doors as ways to go further within the world.

"There!" Demyx shouted, pointing out the golden staircase leading up into light.

Before they could start walking toward it, one of the large stone doors open and a woman with brown hair ran through it, chased by two small heartless unlike any the three fighters had ever seen.

"Are those dogs?" Kairi asked, bewildered. Her confusion only lasted a second though, as the woman fell to the ground and the heartless dogs leapt on top of her.

Demyx's water whip shot out with a loud _crack! _and knocked away the creatures, who scattered as he, Kairi, and Axel ran over to make sure the woman was alright.

"I'm fine." She said as she stood up. "I can handle myself, don't you worry."

"Didn't look that way to me." Axel remarked, sounding cross.

"Axel!" Kairi said, shocked by his tone.

"Don't mind him, miss. He gets cranky when he goes unfed for longer than a few hours." Demyx said, wondering if he could get away with popping a ball of water over his friend's head. "So, uh, do you think you could help us find someone? We're looking for our friend Hercules."

"Wonder boy?" The woman asked, quirking an eyebrow. "You three are friends of Wonder boy's?"

"If by 'wonder boy' you mean Hercules, then yes." Kairi said.

"He's up there in the coliseum." She told them, a frown marring her face. "I was just on my way down to see Hades to ask him to lighten up a bit. Wonder boy's wearing himself thin keeping his 'adoring public' amused by fighting everything Hades sends up."

"Oh, so this is the Underworld then?" Kairi asked, looking interested. "I've always wondered what it looked like. Guess I know now."

"How'd you hear about the Underworld, Kai?" Demyx questioned.

Kairi hesitated a moment, her smile fading to sadness. "From a friend."

Demyx opened his mouth to ask who, but a look and the shake of a head from Axel made him stop and think. _'Oh…' _"Thanks." He mouthed to the redhead, who nodded curtly and turned his attention to the conversation between the two girls.

"…can go down and talk to Hades for you, if you want." Kairi said. "And meanwhile, you can go up and try to talk Hercules into sitting a few rounds out. Even heroes need breaks now and then. You keep going for too long and you'll burn out."

Axel flinched as if he'd been visibly struck. Nobody seemed to notice.

"Well, I guess I could." The woman said. "Thanks. The name's Megara, by the way. But friends call me 'Meg'."

"We can go talk to Hades; piece of cake!" Demyx said enthusiastically. "After all, it's not like he's tried to kill us before or anything, right?"

Axel sheepishly scratched his neck and Kairi suddenly became very interested in the stone floor.

"_Guys!_" Demyx whined. "You mean this guy has tried to kill us before? And now we're going to go talk to him to keep one of our friends from dying? Why does no one around here _think_ before agreeing to do stupid stuff? And why didn't anyone tell _me _about this?"

"Because…"

"We each only half one-fourth of a brain, remember?" Axel filled in for Kairi. "So we currently make up only three-fourths of a brain, since Sora isn't here. And apparently Kairi is trying to make up for the lack of our favorite hero-complex brunet by trying to help everyone."

Kairi childishly stuck her tongue out at Axel.

"But how come I didn't know about this?" Demyx asked, feeling left out. "I mean, you guys knew and Sora probably knew, so why didn't you tell me?"

Kairi shrugged. "I thought you knew. It was kind of obvious, what with all of the creatures he set loose to kill us."

"Ooohh, that guy." Demyx said, recognition dawning on him. "Okay."

"Can we go and get this over with now?" Axel asked. "Or would you two like to stay here and reminisce about how Hades tried to kill us last time?" Before either of them could answer, he began walking toward the door.

Demyx and Kairi exchanged glances, wondering what was bothering Axel so much, and then chased after him. As the door closed behind them, Megara could hear Demyx asking, "I thought that guy's name was 'Phil'."

Shaking her head, she began walking toward the golden staircase. _'It'll be a miracle if they make it back in one piece.'_

If there was one thing they should have learned by the time they got out of the depths of the Underworld, it was that _nothing _ever went according to plan for them. Not only did they not get to talk to Hades, they also managed to piss him off by helping the guy who made him angry to begin with escape. And then they beat up his huge three-headed dog, which probably didn't help make him any less angry.

"So much for us helping." Demyx panted. "What now?"

"We'll have to go tell Megara that we failed." Axel said, just as out of breath as Demyx. "I vote that Kairi goes."

"Not a chance." The auburn-haired girl wheezed, weakly glaring at him. "If one of us goes up, we all go. Not lettin' you get out of carrying supplies."

The three of them sat on the ground for a while longer to catch their breath and regain use of their limbs. Demyx was the first to recover, shortly followed by Kairi. While Kairi went over to speak with the holographic moogle in the corner, Demyx stayed by Axel's side to talk to him.

"So what's eating you? You've been crabby and irritable for over a month now. Is it, like, a never ending PMS cycle or something bizarre like that?"

Axel glared at the blond. "No." He said crossly.

"Then what is it?" Demyx asked. "C'mon, you can tell me. Who am I going to tell?"

Axel looked pointedly at Kairi.

Demyx blinked and turned around to check what Axel was staring at. His lips formed 'oh!' before he looked back at the redhead. "Why would I tell Kairi?"

"Because you like her." Axel said bluntly.

Demyx blushed and looked down at the ground. "D-do not! A-and anyway," He looked back up. "Even if I did, I wouldn't tell her if I promised you I wouldn't. So, if I promise not to tell _anyone _will you tell me?"

Axel considered it for a moment and then nodded. "Fine."

Demyx smiled. "Cool. Alright, so I promise that I won't tell anyone about what's been bothering you. Cross my heart." He made the motion of drawing an 'x' over his heart and then looked at Axel expectantly.

"It's Roxas. I-… I'm not used to being apart from him for so long. Hell, I've _never _been apart from him for longer than a week or two." Axel tilted his head back to rest it against the cool rock as his eyes slid shut. "I was the one who found him, did you know that?"

"Found him? What d'ya mean?" Demyx asked, clearly confused. He never heard about Roxas being lost before the heartless invaded their world.

"I found him on the beach one summer. He was lost, I think, so I took him home to my mom. She fussed over him for days before finally turning him over to the orphanage. Funny to think that he almost ended up being my little brother, huh?" A ghost of a smile crossed his face at the thought. "I went to visit him everyday. We were never the most social of people, even back then when he was all smiles and laughs. We just didn't _connect_ with other people, y'know?

"It was a month or two before he was adopted. You know the Almasy's?"

Demyx nodded. _Everyone _knew the Almasy's; if only by their name.

"He was adopted by them. Him and Seifer hated each other at first. I remember the first time I went over there the two were standing in the hallway between their rooms yelling at each other and calling each other names. Kind of funny, really. I started laughing and then they both glared at me and went into their rooms and slammed the doors."

"So wait, Roxas is the younger Almasy brother?" Demyx asked, his eyes wide with surprise. "I had no idea he was adopted! Him and Seifer look tons alike, don't they? I've seen pictures."

Axel sighed. "Yeah. Not many people know he's adopted. Well, 'cept for the adults." He corrected himself. He opened his eyes in time to see Kairi turn around and start walking back over to them. "Kai's finished talking to the moogle."

"We'll talk more later." Demyx said firmly. He knew there had to be more bothering Axel than just missing Roxas.

"Are we ready to go up there?" Kairi asked them.

Demyx nodded and helped up Axel, and together the three of them climbed the stairs and emerged in the sunlit coliseum. Kairi led the way to the front door while Demyx and Axel lagged behind to discuss what direction to travel in their attempt to find Hollow Bastion.

Inside, Kairi explained the situation to Megara while Demyx and Axel distracted Phil and Hercules.

"Hey there, goat-man." Axel greeted, smirking.

"The name's Phil!"

"Whatever you say, goat-man." Axel responded, clearly enjoying himself.

"You are the most annoying, snot-nosed brat in existence, you know that?" Phil growled, glaring at the redhead. "Why am I training you anyway? You ain't got no respect for your superior's!"

"Aww, ain't that sweet." Axel said mockingly.

"Axel, stop tormenting Phil!" Kairi yelled over at him, her arms akimbo. "We need to get going!"

"You're leaving already?" Hercules asked in surprise. "But you just got here!"

"We've gotta go find Sora." Demyx explained. "We'll be back, so don't worry." He leaned toward Axel. "What I really wanna know is how she gathered supplies so quickly. She's like Superwoman!"

"Exactly." Axel agreed. "She's a woman."

Kairi stalked over to him and shoved a large box in his arms. "Just for that, you get to carry the heaviest box."

"No fair!"

"Completely fair." Kairi replied, walking back over to the small pile of supplies. She beckoned Demyx over and the blond happily joined her and picked up a few boxes.

"See you guys later!" Demyx called as they descended back to the Underworld, where their gummy ship was waiting for them.

* * *

End Chapter

So that's it for chapter 2. Next chapter we go back over to Mnexina and Roxas to find out more about what's going on (maybe) and create more confusion.


	3. Chapter 3: Memory Recall

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney. The idea for Mnexina is mine.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 3: Memory Recall_

"_My name is Kairi."_

Roxas frowned as he stared out over the town he once called home. Nothing was the way he remembered it. The iridescent clouds quickly drifted over the town, never looking the same for longer than a few seconds. Buildings stretched out further than he could remember and from his spot on the tower he could see Sunset Hill. If he stood up and looked hard enough, he could spot a glimmer of the glistening ocean in the distance.

He sighed in frustration and leaned back against the wall of the clock tower. "What a mess."

"_You __**forgot **__my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi. Okay, guess I can give you a hint; Starts with an 'S'."_

Roxas tried to clear his thoughts, only to find it made things even worse. _'Who was that boy? And why couldn't she remember his name?'_

"Ice cream for your thoughts?"

Roxas jumped, bumping his head against the wall. He hadn't even heard Mnexina come back from getting the ice creams. He took the bar that was offered to him and began eating as she sat down beside him.

"So, anything you want to know specifically or should I start from the beginning?" Mnexina asked.

"Start at the beginning." Roxas said. "And I want to know who Diz is."

Mnexina took a bite of her ice cream while she thought of where to start. "We're part of an organization whose members are seeking to regain their hearts by building our own Kingdom Hearts, which is where the hearts of the people of every world are collected. At one time there were thirteen of us; for that reason the Superior named us Organization Thirteen. The Superior is number one; Xemnas. He's our leader and he usually sits in the basement and talks to himself. We always figured he enjoyed hearing himself talk. Number two is Xigbar, the Freeshooter. He uses crystal laser guns and can manipulate gravity to some extent. Number three is Xaldin, the Whirlwind Lancer. He can manipulate the wind, as well as his lances. Make sure you never interrupt him; he has a bad temper. Number four was--"

"Vexen." Roxas interrupted. "He… he wasn't very nice. Kind of… cold to everyone. I don't think he was around very much."

Mnexina shook her head. "He was taken out by the traitors the first week you were with us. Anyway, after him was Lexaeus, who was taken out by Diz's little lackey. It's a pity; he was one of the few decent ones around the castle."

"I remember him, I think. He was… really, really big wasn't he?"

"Yes."

"And number six… that's Zexion. He can create illusions. He's… our friend, right?" Roxas asked hopefully.

Mnexina smiled. "That's right! Looks like you're starting to remember. Who's number seven?"

"Saix. The, uh, moon guy." Roxas frowned at his ice cream unsurely. "He's the one we always got in trouble with. He's like the Superior's right-hand man. He's got a temper worse than Xaldin's, I remember. Xigbar was always pissing him off over something stupid.

"Number eight was…. Um…"

"The biggest traitor of all." Mnexina said coldly. "We don't speak of him anymore. Nor do we speak of numbers ten and eleven."

"Oh." Roxas was silent for a moment. "So, number nine is Luxord, right? The Gambler of Fate?" He began to get more confident the more he spoke of the others. "He's really good at poker and finds it amusing to challenge Xigbar to games of strip poker. I guess it only helps that Xigbar is gullible enough to join in."

"Their new hobby has been to run around completely shit-faced lately. It's a miracle that anything gets done." Mnexina said disdainfully.

"Marluxia was number ten and Larxene was number eleven." Roxas remembered. "Number twelve was… is you. So… I'm number thirteen, right?"

"Number thirteen, the Key of Destiny." Mnexina replied. "You were found here in Twilight Town."

"Really?" Roxas asked, frowning. "I don't remember that."

"It'll take a while before your memories restore themselves. It's a slow process."

"Oh."

Roxas's ice cream began dripping down the stick and he took a moment to lick it away and eat some more. Mnexina discreetly opened a small portal and stuffed the ice cream into it, not in the mood for the unique flavor.

"_Okay, guess I can give you a hint…"_

"What about Diz?" Roxas asked. "And who's this 'keyblade master' he thinks I can awaken?"

"Diz was once a great scientist who lived in a world called Hollow Bastion. His research led to the discovery of the heartless and the heart of all worlds. From what I understand, his assistants took the information and used it to study the darkness of people's hearts and as a result of that more heartless were created. Diz was banished to the world between worlds; a realm of darkness that is difficult to travel through."

"But we travel by that between world." Roxas said.

"Difficult, but not impossible." Mnexina said. "Anyway, as for why he thinks you'll awaken the Keyblade Master, when he's never been asleep to begin with, I have no idea. Perhaps he's gotten himself confused."

"How do you know him?"

"Unfortunately, I've had some dealings with him the past. It was all on the Superior's orders and I did manage to come out ahead, but barely."

"_Starts with an 'S'."_

"Who's Sora?"

Mnexina looked momentarily taken aback as her eyes went wide and her lips parted in surprise. "W-where'd you hear that name?"

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged. "It just came to me."

Mnexina hesitated. _'I didn't think it'd come to this so soon.' _She let out a breath of air she didn't know she'd been holding in and then impatiently swiped her hand over her brow, brushing aside her bangs. "Sora was the name of your original self, just as mine was 'Naminé'. They're not names that matter very much anymore. Especially not to us."

Roxas wasn't going to let the subject go so easily. "What if Sora's the one Diz thinks I can awaken. What if I was suppose to be kidnapped by Diz so he can awaken. What if by awakening Sora I would join with him and regain my heart." A frightened expression came over his face. "What if that was my only chance to get a heart. I--"

"Those are all very chancy what-if's." Mnexina interrupted before he could get too carried away. "We don't know what would have happened if you and Sora were to meet. I think - and the Superior agrees with me on this - that there would be disastrous consequences for any Nobody who meets their Somebody, never mind that it shouldn't be possible for such a thing to happen. Unfortunately," She sighed. "The keyblade complicates everything."

"_I'm telling you, I saw someone up here!"_

Mnexina and Roxas leapt to their feet at the sound of the voice on the other side of the door to the stairway.

"_Hayner, I didn't see anything."_

"_Are you sure you weren't just seeing things?"_

Roxas reached for the door a look of longing in his eyes. "Hayner. Pence. Olette." He whispered.

Mnexina reached out and laid her hand on his shoulder. "Things are different here. C'mon, we've got to go before they get up here. It's time I reported in to the Superior anyway. We'll drop by your old room and grab a coat before we go." She quickly opened a portal and steered Roxas towards it.

Roxas snapped out of his daze quickly and hurried through the portal with Mnexina right behind him. Just as the last swirl of darkness vanished, the door slammed open and an irate Hayner stomped out onto the ledge and looked around.

"See, I told you there wasn't anybody." Olette said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Roxas was up here." Hayner said, continuing to look around.

"Wait, _Roxas?_" Olette looked taken aback. "Hayner, Roxas is gone. He's been gone for over a year. If he were back then we would have heard something about it."

"I know what I saw." Hayner said stubbornly.

Olette and Pence exchanged hopeless looks, worried for their friend. It was the first time in months that he had spoken the blond's name.

* * *

Zexion lay on his bed flipping through a new scientific journal he managed to swipe on a previous mission. It was one of the few quiet and peaceful times around the castle and he was determined to relax and enjoy it.

'_Where is it?' _He wondered.

The door slammed open with a particularly loud bang, but unlike any of the other nobody's around the castle, Zexion calmly looked up and regarded his one ally through lidded eyes. "I take it the mission went awry."

"No. Mission went fine." Mnexina growled, stomping into the room. The door slammed shut behind her on it's own as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "Roxas is back, so I took him down to see the Superior and to tell him we've foiled Diz's plans again. And you know what the first thing he does is?"

Zexion doesn't bother asking what, knowing that she will tell him anyway.

"He gives Roxas a new mission! What is he thinking? Roxas just got back! He needs time to readjust to everything and everyone before he goes out and does some work again! He at least needs some time to train with his keyblades again!" She ranted. "And you know what the worst part is?" She looked over at Zexion and for the first time since she arrived at the castle he saw hurt and confusion in her eyes. "He's doing the same shit as before. He's separating the two of us from Roxas so we don't have so much as five minutes to talk to him alone."

"We have busy work again, don't we?"

Mnexina nodded. "Yeah. He wants us to go to Atlantica and find some chest for him. There's not anything _left _in Atlantica for us to collect, and he knows it! There aren't even heartless there anymore."

Zexion sighed and shut his book, making sure to note what page he left out on. "Whether we like it or not, Xemnas knows what he's doing. Think about it; what would you do if you were our leader?"

"Get everyone's respect, first of all. And not let plots of betrayal rage out of control to the point you have to eliminate other members. And I'd make sure everyone knows what the hell they're suppose to do." Mnexina said.

"And what if you were slowly going insane while losing control of the organization you are leading?"

Mnexina hesitated a moment, slowly beginning to understand where Zexion was going with the conversation. "I'd… run everyone so ragged they wouldn't have time to think and therefore plot against me or begin to think that I was losing control."

"Exactly." Zexion agreed. "And all of this has led to the development of a theory on the Superior's recent habits."

Mnexina cocked her head sideways. "So you're trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with him? Good luck."

"I believe that he absorbs all of the nobodies who have faded." Zexion said bluntly. "Their abilities, their memories, everything."

Mnexina frowned. "But that doesn't make sense. Wouldn't we have seen him use the abilities more to try and scare us into continuing to follow him? Or… maybe he expects us to figure it out and knows that not knowing the extent of his powers will keep us in enough terror."

"He's going insane." Zexion pointed out. "He doesn't have some elaborate scheme to keep us under his thumb; not anymore. I think it's more along the lines of him not being in the right mind to use any of his abilities, new or old."

"I can't believe no one else has noticed this." Mnexina remarked.

"Luxord, Xigbar, and Xaldin spend nearly ninety percent of their time drunk and the other ten percent suffering from a hangover. It's little wonder they never notice what goes on. And Saix would leap off a bridge if Xemnas told him to. He practically worships him."

"And Roxas hasn't been around to see most of it… How are we going to tell him about all of us if Xemnas keeps us all apart?"

"What I'm more worried about is, if he is making a conscious effort to keep the three of us apart, why does he continue to team us together on missions?"

The two fell silent for a moment, trying to gather their thoughts.

"Perhaps he does know what he's doing." Zexion murmured, sounding troubled. "Roxas sees things clearly while we overanalyze everything and miss the most obvious of things. And the others, as oblivious as they are to everything, would notice if they didn't see the two of us talking together. Because Roxas has been gone for a while, it's less noticeable to have him out on missions."

"And with us being paranoid over everything he _might _be doing, it keeps us in the dark as to what his _real_ plans are." She sighed and laid her head down on Zexion's feet. "What are we going to do?" She asked hopelessly.

Zexion said nothing.

Once again, silence overcame them, lasting for longer than just a few minutes. It was briefly interrupted when Xigbar opened the door and slurred, "Dudes! Y'gotta come see this!" before turning around and running down the hallway. Seconds later, Xaldin and Luxord stampeded past, screaming obstinacies.

"You know," Mnexina said after a moment. "I know we aren't suppose to feel things and all, but I'm kind of curious. Do you want to go see what the idiotic trio has gotten into this time?"

"Only if you allow me to collect proper blackmail against them this time."

Mnexina raised an eyebrow. "You realize they won't care, right?"

Zexion smirked. "They will when they're sober."

Mnexina sat up and gaze him an odd look, clearly conveying her doubt about them becoming sober anytime in the near future. "Fine. Gather away. Lets get out there before Xigbar forgets about what it is we're suppose to be seeing."

The two of them got out in the hallway just in time to witness a huge explosion blowing open the door to room number seven.

"Saix is going to be pissed."

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

It took far too long for me to finish this chapter, and I apologize for that. There's something about summer vacation that makes me not want to do anything, including work on stories. But I can guarantee that as soon as school starts up (on the 21st of this month, for me.) there will be no end to the flood of ideas and inspiration I get. Not to mention that working on stories will be much more appealing than doing homework.

This chapter was much shorter than I wanted it to be, but there wasn't much more I could write unless I wanted to delve into chapter 5's plans. The next chapter should be much longer, especially since I get to bring Yuffie in and she talks nearly as much as Demyx.


	4. Chapter 4: Search

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 4: Search _

_Hollow Bastion may have once been one of the most beautiful of all the worlds, but looking at it now, you would never notice. _Kairi mused, looking down at the world from the gummi ship.

Valleys gouged themselves throughout the landscape, leaving the land above them dry and barren. Not even a trace of water remained in the deepest of cracks. Even in the small town near the remains of the once-proud castle, there was little sign of life other than the occasional houseplant.

"Wow, it's even creepier than I remember." Demyx remarked. "At least last time there was the huge waterfall thing to make it a little less, you know, creepy?"

"How do we even know if Leon and the others are there?" Axel asked. "It looks pretty much abandoned."

"They said they were going to come back and rebuild." Kairi reminded him. "And we would have been able to see that town from the castle, but I don't remember it. Look how new and clean it looks compared to the castle."

"I didn't say we weren't going to go down and take a look." Axel said, crossing his arms over his chest. "C'mon, I need some help finding a place to land this thing."

Demyx followed him back up to the cockpit, leaving Kairi to continue looking out the window. The two of them easily brought the gummi ship down on the edge of town and then the three of them disembarked and began walking around town, taking note of the different shops they could buy supplies at.

"Maybe I misjudged." Axel said, not sounding very apologetic.

Kairi dropped the pair of earrings she was looking at and glared at Axel before stomping over to him. "Okay, listen here, _you." _She growled, poking him in the chest. "I am so sick of your pessimistic attitude! What the hell is wrong with you? Last year we couldn't get you to shut up and this year we can't get you to say more than two words that don't form an insult! I'm starting to think I prefer the _annoying _Axel more than the one I see right now! I can understand if you miss Roxas, but that's not an excuse for the way your acting so straighten up or I'll take matters into my own hands! And trust me, you won't like it when I do that."

Satisfied that her words may have had some effect on Axel, Kairi spun on her heel and hurried over to join Demyx, who was talking to a duck who wore a top hat.

Axel shoved his hands deep within his pockets and dropped his eyes to the ground."What does she know." He muttered grumpily.

"What does who know?"

Axel jumped in surprise and spun around, coming face to face with a familiar smiling brunette.

Cradled in her arms was a bouquet of soft colored flowers in blues and violets, each type of flower unique in some way. Around one arm was wrapped the handle of a plain wicker basket that held different fruits and vegetables. If that wasn't enough, the long, flowing, pink skirt and the darker sleeveless top gave her the overall impression of a caring mother watching out for her children.

Feeling like a little kid with his hands caught in the cookie jar, Axel turned his head to avoid meeting her gaze. "It's nothin'." He fibbed.

Aerith took a step forward, trying to get a good look at him. "Nothing?" She repeated, still smiling. "It doesn't look like nothing." She shifted the flowers in her arms so she could have one free arm, and then reached out and laid it on his shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and lifted her hand to gently touch the earring dangling from his ear. "This is new."

Axel smirked wryly. "Yeah. Nearly burnt the guy who did it, too. Not on purpose." He hurriedly added. "The earring got hotter faster than I thought it would and then the guy touched it when he went to check it and uh… well, lets just say he was _really_ surprised. I probably should have warned him that my body temperature runs about twenty degrees higher than anyone else's."

"That must make it hard to tell when you're sick." Aerith said.

Axel shrugged. "I don't usually get sick. But I've noticed when I don't eat enough my temperature goes up and makes me feel sick. The only way I can tell is when I go to wash my hands and they start steaming when the water hits them. I think my mom's real thankful that I wasn't this way when I was a kid."

"Aerith!" Yuffie popped up out of nowhere, making Axel jump again.

Honestly, what was it with those people that they could startle him so easily? It made sense with Yuffie, she _was _a ninja, but Aerith wore those clunky brown boots… Maybe it was just a girl thing. Come to think of it, his mom could do it too.

Aerith removed her hand from Axel's earring and turned to look at the raven-haired girl standing there impatiently. "Yes?"

Yuffie waved at Axel quickly before turning her attention back to Aerith. "Can I get me, and Kairi and Demyx an ice cream?"

"You know we're suppose to be careful with munny." Aerith gently reminded.

"Oh?" Yuffie asked, raising an eyebrow. Her hands rose up to rest on her hips as she looked pointedly at the flowers in Aerith's arms. "So, those plants are necessities around the house, are they?"

Aerith sighed, knowing she'd been beat. "Alright. But one scoop only!" She began to reach for her munny purse, but stopped when Yuffie held up the small bag and jiggled it. "Yuffie." She said in exasperation.

"See you at home!" Yuffie said as she skipped off, humming happily.

For a moment, Aerith bemoaned the loss of the rest of the weeks munny, before she remembered that she was in charge of assigning patrols.

"For someone who just had their munny stolen, you don't look too upset." Axel remarked.

Aerith smiled up at him. "Yuffie must have forgotten who is in charge of patrols this week." She shifted the flowers in her arm. "Care to help me with the rest of my shopping? Yuffie was suppose to, but she tends to get distracted. She's the only one I can ever get to come along with me, though."

Axel agreed and tagged along with her as she visited a few of the other food stands, promising each person that she'll pay them back in the morning. It wasn't until Axel was laden down with food and a new pair of boots that Aerith decided to call it quits and go back to the house.

"So, what's wrong?" She asked as they began the walk down the many stairs leading out of the market.

"Nothing." Axel lied for a second time. "Everything's fine."

"It doesn't look like nothing to me." Aerith stopped walking. "You know, sometimes talking helps."

Axel flinched. For a moment she sounded too much like Naminé for him to be comfortable with. "I don't want to talk." He continued to walk down the stairs, brushing aside the fact that he didn't know exactly where they were suppose to be going.

Aerith hurried after him, her ponytail swinging. "Are you sure?"

"Very." Axel tersely replied.

Aerith let it drop. To say she was used to guys who didn't like talking about how they were feeling would be an understatement. Cid was the exception, because, much like Yuffie, it was difficult to get him to be quiet. Or, more accurately, to get him to stop cursing while he complained about things.

Axel followed her past a few houses all crowded in together until they came to a square that could have been considered homely if it weren't for the huge crane looming over it.

"This is Merlin's house. He's letting us use it as our headquarters while we rebuild." Aerith explained as she opened the door. She took a step inside and looked around. "Where is everyone else?"

Walking inside, Axel saw only Yuffie and Merlin sitting at the table playing cards and drinking tea.

"Leon took Kairi and Demyx down to the bailey and Cid went up to work on the gummi ship." Yuffie said, before giving grinning. "Ha! Read 'em and weep, old man! Full house!" She expertly fanned her cards on the table for him to see and then gathered up her winnings: a pile of poker chip sized candies of various colors.

"Hmm, I thought for sure I'd win that time." Merlin commented, looking confused.

"Yuffie cheats." Aerith said simply, as she set down her basket on top of a stack of Cid's papers. "Axel, you can set those down anywhere and then go see Leon and the others in the bailey. It's up on that walkway past the crane."

Axel looked around for a safe place to set the food down at, but, finding none, decided that the only place he could put the bags was on the floor. He gave Aerith a strained smile and then left to hunt down his friends.

The bailey was easy to find. It was a large, stone structure which overlooked one of the canyons gouged into the land. He paused by one of the windows to peer at the odd castle in the distance. He could make out the symbol of the created heartless, but just barely. "The hell is that?" He muttered.

"Ah… the keyblade."

Axel turned around searching for the owner of the voice. Instead, he found a doorway and through that doorway he could see Kairi, Demyx, and Leon glaring up at someone on top of the bailey.

"A truly marvelous weapon. If only it were in more…. capable hands."

Axel moved closer to the doorway, summoning his chakrams with a spin of his hands. If there was going to be any trouble from the mysterious person or from the guy's henchmen, if the sounds of several people laughing was any indication, he was going to be ready to fight.

"Cowards!" Kairi yelled. "Come back here!"

"Let them go, Kai." Demyx advised. "We don't know who they are or what they want. Lets not make enemies if we don't have to."

"They were wearing black coats. That kind of screams "evil villains", doesn't it?"

"Not necessarily. You gotta think; Batman wears all black."

"Batman's a comic book hero. It's not real life."

"I just wanted to point out that not all guys in all black are evil villains."

"Okay, but did you not pick up on the total 'evil villain' vibe they were giving off?"

"Oh, so there's an evil villain vibe now, is there?"

"Of course there is."

Leon swiftly walked past Axel, muttering about how Yuffie is bad enough and that he doesn't need any more teenagers to deal with. Not wanted to get caught up in their argument, Axel jogged after Leon, figuring that walking beside him would be the safest bet.

"Are they always like this?" Leon asked.

Axel shrugged. "I dunno. It's usually worse on the gummi ship. Especially after we've been traveling for a week."

"Ah." Leon was silent for a moment, before the sound of Kairi and Demyx's bickering began to get to him again. "So, what are your plans?"

'_Well, at least he's not asking me what's wrong.' _"We've got to find Sora. I figure we can visit some worlds nearby here, since this is the last place we were all together. And if he's not in any nearby worlds, then he's probably back home on his islands, so we'll have to find it." He ran his hand through his hair, wincing at how greasy and unkempt it was. He tugged his fingers free of the tangles and shoved his hands back into his pockets. "So what's the deal with that new castle thing?"

"We don't know." Leon said with a frown. "But the heartless flock to it in thousands. We're trying to come up with a way to get rid of them, but we haven't come up with anything that'll work."

Axel smirked. "Demyx and Kairi already volunteered us to help you guys out, didn't they?" He asked, sounding amused. He rolled his eyes when Leon nodded. "And I thought Sora was bad."

"You think it's a bad idea to help out friends?"

"I didn't say that. I just meant it'd be nice if they'd ask my opinion about something for once." Axel muttered. "If they keep on like this, I'll end up not knowing who we've promised to help out. People get pissed when they've been promised help and it doesn't come."

"You've been through this before?"

Axel nodded. "Yeah, with Roxas. He'd never admit it, but he has a huge hero-complex. And he'd tell me about something we need to do but I'd end up spacing out because he'd choose the most inopportune time to tell me about this thing and then I'd forget all about it and he'd yell at me." He sighed. "Kind of sad how much I miss even those times."

Leon "hmm'd", but said nothing else.

Axel fell silent and it was only then that he noticed that Kairi and Demyx were quiet. He quickly glanced back and found that he wasn't too surprised to see that they weren't there. He rolled his eyes and continued to follow Leon back to the house. _'Honestly, those two need to kiss and make up already.'_

"Sooo," Yuffie plopped herself down on the small futon that Axel had taken over for the night. "How're you doing?"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Fine." He said wearily.

"Okay, cool." Yuffie said, smiling. "Where are you guys headed after this? Kairi mentioned you're looking for Sora, so you're gonna try some nearby worlds, right? Any idea where you're going first?"

"Why are you asking me this?" Axel asked. "Kairi and Demyx probably have a better idea about where we're going."

Yuffie cocked her head to the side. "But you're the oldest, right?" She asked curiously. "That makes you the leader."

Axel snorted and shook his head. That was the most amusing thing he had heard all day. "Me being the oldest doesn't mean anything. Besides, Sora's our leader."

Yuffie's smile faded a little. "But Sora's not here. Someone's gotta be, like, second in command, right? Which would be you. At least, that's the way it works with us. Cid's our leader, even though he never acts it. And it may not ever seem like it, but Aerith is our second in command. Leon just acts like the leader. Kinda confusing, huh?"

Axel blinked. "Huh?"

Yuffie grinned and began swinging her legs. "Yeah, that's the reaction I get from most people when I try to explain it. You see, Cid's the oldest and the only one who can keep us from doing really stupid stuff and Aerith's the next oldest and keeps everyone in line. Leon's more of the town protector; same as me."

"It's different with us." Axel said. "Sora's the one we let have charge. Kairi's more of the second-in-command type, not me."

Yuffie was on her feet in a second, her hands on her hips. "Okay, you listen to me now! No one ever thinks I pay attention to anything outside of my little world, but I really do! The three of you right now are like fire meets water meets lightning, which means the three of you aren't really compatible together. Sora gives you guys direction, but even then it's still a mess, which was why Namine made the perfect addition." She held up a hand when Axel opened his mouth to speak. "Nuh-uh, still talking." She chimed, the picture of innocence. "So now you're missing half the group and have to figure out how to work together all over again, not to mention it's been a year and a person can change a lot in just a year.

"The first thing you need is for someone to take charge. It doesn't look like Kairi or Demyx is gonna do that, so they need you to focus and _lead them._ You could be a great leader! I'm sure of it. And you never know, it might help you feel better."

'_Whoa, back up a second.' _"Feel better?" Axel repeated with a frown. "What makes you think I'm not feeling well. I'm just fine."

Yuffie didn't look very convinced. "Axel, you haven't cracked one joke the entire time you've been here. And plus, Aerith told me. And if there's one thing I know, it's that Aerith is _always_right. End of story." She sighed when it didn't look like Axel was willing to budge one bit. "Just think about it, okay?" She left him alone in the room only to pop back in a minute or two later. "I forgot why I really came down here!" She said, laughing. "The shower's free now if you're interested. The hot water should have had enough time to build back up now."

* * *

It wasn't until later that night, after a long, hot shower and a decent meal for once, that Axel laid back and thought about what Yuffie told him. It was true that he had been trying to distance himself from everyone, especially in the last few months, to hide how much he was hurting. When they first started gathering gummi pieces, he had thrown himself into the task with a reckless abandon, hoping it would help distract his mind from everything going on. He did the same while fighting heartless and piloting the gummi ship around the worlds.

The distraction never lasted very long. There were always those quiet times that snuck up on him and made him think; like at that very moment.

"Damn it…" He cursed, rolling over so he wasn't looking at the ceiling. He soon found that staring at the wall wasn't much better and so he got up and shuffled into the main room of the house. There he found Cid, who was sipping on a cup of coffee while typing away on his huge computer.

"If yer gonna stand there, yeh might as well make yerself useful. Git over here and give me a hand." Cid told him without looking away from the screen.

Having nothing better to do, Axel shuffled over to the computer and waited for Cid's directions.

"Okay, first of all I need yeh to go git me another cup of coffee. Then come back here and I'll show yeh some new layouts fer gummi ships. I'm tryin' to git one that'll be big enough so there's enough room, but small enough that it's easy teh navigate."

Axel took the cup the blond man held out to him and went off to the kitchen to locate the coffee pot. He filled it almost to the top before realizing that it was cold. Grinning, he raised the temperature around his hand to a point just before flames would be created. _'This is the best part about being a fire elemental.' _He thought proudly, as he walked back to Cid. _'You get an element that is multifunctional.'_

Cid accepted the cup without a word and then pulled up blueprint after blueprint of different gummi ship layouts, explaining his reasoning behind each one. Axel would occasionally give a piece of advice on how to make it a bit better.

"An' this is yer gummi ship with the additions I made ter it." Cid said, pulling up a smaller one. "There wasn' much I could do without takin' the whole damn thing apart, but I got a new storage space built up with a time stop freezer. It's s'pose to keep things fresh, but hell if I know how it works. Yeh'd have teh ask the crazy old man."

By 'the crazy old man', Axel assumed he meant 'Merlin'.

"I also vamped up yer shields. They should do better until I can git the right pieces to give yeh some new ones. So take it easy when yer flying through asteroid fields, 'cause they can only take so much. This new radar system should help yeh out with the asteroids so you can avoid the real big ones. It'll also detect when doors to new worlds have opened. I left yer cannons alone. It looks like yeh have enough fire-power, but if yeh have any trouble then let me know."

Axel nodded. "Yeah. No problem."

"Go git some sleep, kid." Cid ordered. "I don't want some sleep-deprived idiot behind the wheel of the ship. You'll wreck it."

Axel was too tired to do anything but go to sleep.

* * *

Breakfast was a surprisingly quiet affair, with Yuffie out on morning patrol, seeing as how she was a much better morning person than Leon, who glared at anyone who dared to try to speak to him. Demyx and Kairi stuck to quietly conversing with Aerith, Merlin, and Cid while waiting for Axel to return from wherever he vanished to.

"So, where are you guys going next?" Aerith asked.

Kairi shrugged as she spooned fruit onto her plate. "I don't know. I guess we'll just go out and start searching worlds to see if he's there."

"_Yeah, well when I said 'you might not want to hit that', what I meant was, 'Yuffie you fucking idiot, don't fucking hit that!'"_

"_I said I was sorry!"_

The door opened with a creak and Axel and Yuffie walked in, arguing over something that had happened while they were on patrol.

"I know you're sorry, but the point is you need to listen when someone tells you somethin'." Axel argued.

Yuffie pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "You don't have to be so mean about it."

Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Yeah, okay. Sorry."

Yuffie perked right up and beamed at him. "Great! Now we can get some food!"

"I ate before we went out."

Yuffie narrowed her eyes at the redhead. "Axel, we already talked about this." She said in her best 'don't-fuck-with-me-boy' voice.

Axel hesitated a moment before walking over to the table and pulling out the chair beside Merlin and sitting down. Yuffie resumed smiling and sat down next to Leon, mainly so she could bother him and see how long it'd take before he'd snap and try to stab her hand with a fork again.

"So, where've you been?" Demyx asked Axel.

"Out restocking the gummi ship. I think I spent most of our munny on food, but we should have plenty of water too. Unless three 20-packs of bottled water isn't enough."

Demyx's eyes widened at the amount of water. "Wow… Three packs is… wow."

Axel chuckled. "Yeah. That's about the reaction I got from the store clerk. Anyway, we're leaving after breakfast."

"So soon?" Kairi asked. "Axel, we don't even know where we're going yet. We need to make a plan before we leave."

"I already have a plan." Axel told her. "We're going to Twilight Town."

"But we've looked all over Twilight Town." Demyx said, confused. "Why are we going back when there's a better chance we'll find him in a different world?"

"Because we didn't look _everywhere._" Axel said. "There's one place we didn't get around to checking, because you thought it was too creepy." He waited until it sank in and Demyx opened his mouth to say something before he spoke up, interrupting the blond. "We have to go check the mansion. It's important."

"Mansion?" Kairi asked. "What's so creepy about a mansion?"

"It's been abandoned for years." Axel said dismissively. "Kids have told ghost stories about it for ages and Demyx apparently believes in them. Me and Rox have gone and stood outside there on dares before and nothing's ever happened. There is nothing even remotely creepy about the house. It's just empty, that's all."

"I've seen lights in the windows!" Demyx protested, shivering. "And it is creepy! It's practically the only place in Twilight Town that gets dark at night."

Axel rolled his eyes. "It's in the middle of the woods. Of course it's gonna get dark at night. And if you're so scared of the place, then you can stand outside by yourself while me and Kairi go inside and look around."

The prospect of standing outside by himself scared Demyx more than the thought of going in the old building.

* * *

Axel led the way past the huge wooden doors of the mansion and into the mostly destroyed foyer.

"Yikes." Kairi muttered, stepping over part of the doorframe. "Talk about your fixer-uppers."

"Kairi, you and Demyx go upstairs and look around. I'll look around down here." Axel instructed. "We'll meet back down here. If you find something that might be important, then make sure you remember where it is or bring it with you."

Demyx attached himself to Kairi's arm as the two set off up the stairs to explore the second level of the mansion. Whether it was because he wanted to protect Kairi or because he wanted her to protect him, Axel wasn't sure. All he knew was that Demyx was certain that the second story was the most haunted area because that was where he saw a light.

Shaking his head, Axel went to explore the door closest to him. The room beyond it was in the same state as the living room; A broken table laid in the middle of the floor and spider webs covered every corner. There was one unusual thing, though. There was no dust on anything.

Axel frowned and left the room to walk across the foyer to the other door. He had to move a board and a crate and then throw himself at the door to get it open. He shivered as he walked into the room and then stopped and stared at all of the boxes labeled, 'Ice Cream'. Out of curiosity, he opened one of the boxes and unwrapped the ice cream. He stared at the blue color before taking a tentative lick.

'_Sea salt.' _He thought. _'Roxas's favorite.'_ He stared at the ice cream for a moment, not really wanting to eat it but knowing what Roxas would have to say if he didn't.

"_Axel, if you don't want to eat it, then why'd you open it! That's just a waste of good food!" Roxas snatched the ice cream from Axel's hand. "Here, I'll finish it."_

Axel smiled at the memory and began to eat the ice cream as he walked back out into the foyer to wait for Kairi and Demyx to return. To his surprise, the two are waiting for him.

"How come you got the cool room?" Demyx asked, noticing the ice cream right away. "We just got a creepy library with creepy statues and this all-white room with drawings everywhere."

Axel sighed and pointed to the door leading to the ice cream room and Demyx happily rushed past him to get one, forgetting all about his fear of being alone in the house.

"Axel, does this look familiar?" Kairi asked, flipping open a sketchbook. She pointed to a black and white picture of spirals and circles all connected together to form a pattern.

Axel shook his head. "No. Why?"

Kairi frowned. "I could have sworn I've seen this symbol somewhere before, I just can't remember where. I wish…" She left her statement unfinished, though Axel knew what she was about to say.

"_I wish Naminé was here."_

Axel awkwardly patted her on the back. "Yeah, me too."

"You know," Demyx spoke up, having returned with his ice cream. "Half of that design was sketched on that table in the library. I bet something would happen if we finished it." His eyes widened. "On second thought, lets get out of here and not finish the drawing and never ever _ever _come back to this creepy place again. Whaddya say, guys?"

"No." The redheads said in unison.

"Demyx, you know as well as us that Sora gets himself into the most unlikely of situations." Kairi said, putting her hands on her hips. "If he's anywhere in Twilight Town, he'll be here in this place. And anyway, if there are any ghosts, it's not like they can hurt us."

"Which way to the library?" Axel asked.

"Up the stairs and to the right." Kairi promptly replied.

Axel led the way to the library without waiting to see if Kairi and Demyx were going to follow. To his surprise, they did.

'_Maybe Yuffie was on to something with that leadership thing.' _He thought. _'This is the most we've done since me and Demyx built the gummi ship and it's only taken us a few days to do it. Now I'm glad that Cid installed that warp gummi drive.'_

Axel paused a few steps into the room to look around, wondering what Demyx found so creepy. Kairi walked past him with the sketchbook and carefully used a piece of chalk to finish the design. Demyx hung back by the door.

"Whoa!" Kairi suddenly exclaimed, before propelling herself backward so she could land on the solid strip of floor near the door. Where she and the table once stood was empty space.

"See, I told you something bad would happen!" Demyx exclaimed.

"Shut up, Demyx." Axel muttered. The blond's abnormal fear of the house was starting to irk him even more than normal. "So, there's a secret chamber in a house that's been abandoned for years. Surprise, surprise." He said sarcastically. "Why can't people be more creative and _not _go for the old cliché's?"

"Because that wouldn't be any fun." Kairi said. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll go." Axel volunteered. "But you two are coming along for backup. If there are heartless down there, then I don't want to be stuck fighting them by myself."

"Yes, because we had to fight _so _many on our way here." Kairi teased.

"Hey, cliché basement place in a supposedly haunted house." Axel said. "It wouldn't be too beyond reason to think that there could be heartless. But if you really want to let your _favorite _fire user march into the claustrophobic space _underneath_ the house where said fire user may very well pass out, then feel free."

Kairi rolled her eyes, but she did it with a smile on her face. "We're coming."

Together, the three of them walked down into the unfamiliar basement.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Well, for this chapter my muses apparently said "Screw the chapter notes, we're doing it _this _way", because _nothing _went according to my notes. First, Aerith tried to steal the show where I wanted Yuffie to show up, but then she was a little too pushy for Axel and so Leon gave it a shot, but then gave up. And then I was _finally_ able to get Yuffie in there, and to my great surprise she was actually _helpful_. And then Cid decided he wanted a scene and he was somewhat helpful.

And you know what? Seifer and his gang was suppose to put in a small appearance (which obviously doesn't happen) and Demyx, Kairi, and Axel were suppose to fall through the basement when the drawing was complete. And as for Demyx's fear of the house, well, I'm _still_ pondering on how that came about because it definitely wasn't in my notes.

I _love _my muses.

Anyway, next chapter we switch back over to Mnexina, Zexion, and Roxas. I'm hoping it'll turn out longer than chapter 3 did, but if it doesn't then I'll join my muses in their "screw the chapter notes" plot and jump back to Axel, Kairi, and Demyx.

BTW, if the mansion scene seems off, it's because I've had practically an entire can of Vault. It seems to actually help my concentration, which is a little weird because you'd think it would make me unable to sit still. But then again, I get most of my writing done after drinking 3 cups of coffee so...

Fact of Life in the World-of-Writers:

more CAFFEINE equals more WRITING!

Even better, I start college tomorrow. Dun dun dunnnn...!


	5. Chapter 5: UnOrganized

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts. (darn) It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 5: Un-Organized_

Mnexina glanced up and down the hallway and then made a break for Roxas's room. She easily slipped through the door and shut it without anyone's notice. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned around to face Zexion and Roxas, who were sitting on the bed.

"It's not Mission Impossible." Zexion remarked.

"Shut up." Mnexina said, scowling. "I don't have long to sit around and chat. Xemnas wants me to go baby-sit Luxord over in Port Royal. Apparently there's some weird treasure that we're suppose to use to stir up trouble."

"Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you." Roxas said. "When I came in earlier, him and Xigbar were hitting the drinks hard."

"Great." Mnexina grumbled sarcastically. She crossed the room and took a seat beside Roxas, who flinched away from her slightly. "So, have you gleamed anything else from your research?" She asked Zexion.

"Not much." He said tersely. "The others keep mentioning that he's been talking to himself lately. I'm not sure if it's fact or if it's the alcohol talking."

"Research?" Roxas asked. "What research?"

"On the Superior's behavior." Zexion explained. "He's been acting even more oddly since you left. I've been collecting data on how he's been acting and compiling it in a way that makes more sense."

"In other words your taking a bunch of stuff Xemnas has been doing and trying to figure out what he's thinking, right?" Roxas asked, getting the basic gist of what Zexion was saying.

"See, _he _gets it." Zexion said to Mnexina, who rolled her eyes and looked away from both of them.

"Maybe if you wouldn't use complicated words when you explain it to me." She muttered.

"Actually, I overheard you guys talking about it before." Roxas said. "I just wanted to see that confused look that Mnexina gets on her face when she's trying to understand what you say."

Mnexina harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest.

There was silence for a moment as Zexion calmly flipped through his notebook, adding notes here and there as he read.

"Hey, guys?" Roxas softly asked. "If I ask you something, you'll give me the truth, right? No matter what?"

He sounded so lost and confused that Zexion looked up from his notebook and Mnexina stopped sulking.

"Of course we will." Mnexina said, stunned that he would think they wouldn't.

"Who's Riku?"

Mnexina's expression turned stony and Zexion resumed reviewing his notes.

"He's the best friend of your Other." She said truthfully. "Why?"

Roxas frowned. "I remember fighting him. And it was _me, _not… not the Other me. I mean, I was fighting with two keyblades, so it had to be me." He narrowed his eyes at Namine. "I lost and they took me to some place. You were there too."

Mnexina leapt backwards and summoned a glistening, silver-white chain just as Roxas swung Oathkeeper at her. The metallic sound rang out loudly in the small room.

"Why did you help them?!" Roxas demanded angrily.

"I had no choice!" Mnexina yelled back, willing the chain long enough so she could swing it and wrap it around a leg before pulling it out from under him.

Roxas easily flipped over backwards, using his keyblade to block the chain as it swung in his direction again. He quickly summoned Oblivion and began to try to snap the chain with it, but a darkened shield sprung up between them and shoved them to the floor.

"_Enough._" Zexion commanded, standing up. "Both of you are acting like petulant children. Release your weapons and _sit down_."

The two slowly rose to their feet, glaring at each other. Mnexina was the first to release her weapon, but she refused to sit back down on the bed and instead walked over and leaned against the wall.

Roxas wearily watched her for a moment before dismissing his keyblade's and sitting back down on the bed.

"Good. Now, _explain._" Zexion instructed.

"Xemnas was the one who gave me the order to keep an eye on things. At first it was only to keep Diz away from Roxas, but then _Riku,_" She spat out the name. _"_Caught up to me one night while I was out looking for the great idiot over here since he thought it'd be a good idea to run away." She glared at Roxas, who matched it with a glare of his own. "So I fought him before Roxas showed up. I still don't know how he did it, but somehow he opened up a portal and sent me through it to some really weird world. By the time I got back here, Roxas was already gone. It was then that Xemnas told me to go to Diz in disguise as my Other and pretend to help him while really gathering information on how to handle the situation.

"If it weren't for me, you'd still be in that damn virtual world. Or worse, rejoined with your Other." She told Roxas.

"So, what? You want me to thank you or something?" Roxas snapped. "You should have told me that Diz was trying to kidnap me."

"As if you would have listened." Mnexina retorted. "You blew me off whenever I managed to figure out where the hell you went. It's your own fault."

"You should have tried harder."

"You should listen more."

Zexion sighed as the argument escalated into name calling. _'And these two are the most sane Nobodies to be around.'_

* * *

"Okay, does anyone else find those pod things extraordinarily creepy?" Demyx asked, shying away from the large white machines. "You could fit an entire person in there!"

"As opposed to only half a person?" Axel quipped.

"Shut up." Demyx muttered. "I was being serious."

Axel grinned. "So was I."

"As nice as it is to see that you've finally regained your sense of humor; both of you need to shut up." Kairi said.

Demyx nodded. "Yeah, all of these things are running and who knows what has been living here. I keep thinking that any second we'll walk around a corner and come face-to-face with some horrifying monster."

"Geez, how many horror movies do you watch?" Axel asked. "Relax. There's nothing down here. Not one thi-- Whoa!"

"What?"

"Nothing."

Kairi smacked Axel in the arm and pushed past him. "Jerk."

"I was just kidding! Demyx knows that. Right, Dem?" Axel asked, turning his head to look at his blond friend.

"Most of the time." Demyx replied. "It is good to hear you joking around again, though." He added in undertone. "I was starting to worry."

Axel waved off his concern. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Got it memorized?"

Demyx grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you really think we're going to find Sora here? I mean, it doesn't like anyone's here. Kind of creepy if you ask me."

"You think everything about this place is creepy." Axel pointed out.

"You don't think so?" Demyx asked. "Look around; it's obvious that someone's been living here what with the ice cream and the obvious lack of dust and the weird machine-thingy's." He gestured with his hand. "But we haven't seen anyone. And there's not any new people in town and no one else has ever seen anyone walking out to the house; other than thrill-seeking idiots that is. You can't say that's not weird!"

"I never said it wasn't weird. I said it wasn't _creepy_. There's a difference."

"G-guys?" Came Kairi's voice from down the hall. "There's something you should come see."

Axel and Demyx exchanged glances and then hurried down the hall and through the open door at the end.

"Whoa!" Demyx stopped in his tracks and stared at the huge pod-machine in the middle of the pure-white room.

Floating in the pod as if suspended by the mist within the pod was Sora, who appeared to be in a deep sleep.

"Here we are traipsing all over the place lookin' for him and he's been asleep the entire time." Axel complained. He walked up to the pod and rapped his knuckles against the glass. "Yo, Sora! Time to wake up!"

The pod made a noise like air being let out of a balloon and Axel took a few wary steps backwards, unsure of what the thing was doing. A spray of mist swept out of it as petal like pieces began separating and lowering to the ground.

"Sora!" Kairi happily shouted as the brunet's feet touched the ground.

Sora yawned as he opened his eyes and stretched his arms out over his head. Then he hopped down from the machine and smiled at his friends. "Hey, guys!" His smile faltered slightly when he noticed the looks they were giving him. "Uh, long time no see?"

"Too long." Kairi agreed before giggling. "Sora, look at your clothes."

"Huh?" Sora glanced down and was surprised to find that his red pants were more like shorts. "Wow, how's they shrink so fast?"

"I don't think that it's your clothes that shrunk." Axel said. "I think _you_'ve grown. You might even be taller than Kairi now."

Sora pouted. "I wasn't _that _short."

"You keep telling yourself that." Axel said teasingly. "Maybe one day it'll be reality."

Kairi rolled her eyes and lightly smacked Axel's arm. "That's enough. We haven't seen him in over a year and the only thing you can think to do is tease him? For shame."

"Yeah, Axel." Demyx chimed in. "For shame."

Axel backed off, muttering something about how Demyx should grow a backbone and develop his own opinion's instead of going against him all the time.

"A year?" Sora asked, scratching the back of his neck. "Has it really been a whole year? It doesn't feel that long. In fact, it feels to me like it was only a couple days ago that we were fighting Ansem."

"You must have been sleeping for a long time." Kairi said. "So, where are Donald and Goofy? Or did they go back to their own world?"

Sora frowned, wracking his brain for any information he might have stored away regarding the two. "I…" He paused a moment. "I don't know. I guess so. Yeah, they must've gone back to their own world, otherwise they'd be here with me." He nodded. "Alright, so Donald and Goofy are back home. But, uh, how did you guys get here? Come to think of it, how did _I _get here?"

"You don't remember?" Demyx asked.

Sora shook his head. "Not a bit. The last thing I remember… the last thing I remember is sealing the door to Kingdom Hearts with Riku and the King on the other side. I ended up in a grassy field and Pluto was there, but he took off running and I chased after him. That's all I remember."

"Great, another mystery." Axel grumbled. "Well, c'mon. Lets get out of here before Demyx freaks out on us and thinks he's seen a ghost."

"I'm telling you, this place _is _haunted!"

* * *

"Are you done yet?"

Mnexina broke her glare to look over at Zexion. "Done what?"

"Moping." Zexion replied. "Ever since you had that fight with Roxas you've been moping. Stop it. It's annoying."

Mnexina scowled. "It's not like I'm trying to mope! And I'm not moping, so don't call it that! I'm pissed! How could Roxas really think that I'd do something like that? I don't betray friends- allies!" She hastily corrected.

Zexion said nothing about her slipup.

Mnexina sighed and leaned back against the headboard. "Why would he think something like that? I… I don't come across as someone who would do such a thing, do I?" She asked.

"Not usually." Zexion replied. "There are times when it's difficult to tell what your plans are. And you have gone against the Superior on numerous occasions."

"It saved your neck, didn't it?" Mnexina angrily demanded. "If I hadn't defied him then you'd be gone and then where would we be?"

"You'd be here." Zexion said slowly. "And I… would be nonexistent. Nobody's don't die, they fade into nonexistence. It would be as if I were never even here. Any evidence of my being would disappear with me. And in time, even you would forget."

"How do you figure?"

"Close your eyes and try to imagine what number ten looked like. Can you do it? Or do you just get a vague image of him?"

"I remember pink." Mnexina said after a moment of thought. "Lots of pink. And flowers. Or at least flower petals. I think he used a scythe."

"But that's it." Zexion stated, nodding. "Because we are Nobody's."

"Is that truly our only fate?" Mnexina asked. "To fade into nonexistence to the point where no one can recall we were ever here? For us to never make an impact in any of the worlds, no matter what we do? It's like we're ghosts. We're here, but we don't really exist." She shook her head. "But we have feelings! We feel… we feel pain and hurt and loss. We feel happiness and pleasure and… love." She hesitantly added. "We feel, so why is it that we have no existence? Just because we don't have hearts? What does that mean, anyway? Is it metaphorical or literal or both? And who decided that we have no existence?"

"The questions will always be there." Zexion said, sadness tingeing his voice. "No one will look much further into the subject because too many believe that there isn't much more to being a Nobody. It's the way things always will be."

"No matter what we do… no matter what we say…" Mnexina sighed. "The only thing we can do is that one thing that we can never do: _Live._"

* * *

Demyx led the way back into town with Kairi at his side while Axel and Sora lagged behind to discuss what to do next.

"We need to keep looking for Riku and the King. They'll be together." Sora decided. "And we'll keep looking for Roxas too. He's bound to be in one of the worlds that we visit, right?"

Axel nodded. "Yeah." He said unsurely.

"Cheer up, Axel. We'll find him." Sora said optimistically. "I just know it!" He paused a moment, deciding it was time to change the subject. "So this is your home, right? It looks cool. Lots more exciting than plain old Destiny Island."

Axel shrugged. "It's a small town. There's not really anything exiting or interesting about it once you've lived here for the while. In fact, there's only three things that we have to look forward to around here: the Summer Struggle Tournament, the Fall Fair, and the Winter Beach Bash." He paused a moment, his eyes widening. "Did you say 'Destiny Island'?"

"Yeah, why?"

Axel frowned and began massaging his temples as a slight pain arched across his skull. "I… I don't remember. There's something important, but I can't think of what it is."

"Maybe you'll remember later." Sora suggested. "Hey, maybe you heard me telling Kairi about it before now and that's why it sounds familiar."

Axel shook his head. "No, it's more important than that. I just--"

"AXEL!"

Something slammed into the back of Axel's head, sending him sprawling forward onto the ground. He dizzily got to his knees and looked around, barely managing to focus on the taller redhead standing before him. "Fer fuck's sake, Reno!" He slurred.

Reno wasn't having any of it. His arm shot out and grabbed Axel's hair, hauling him to his feet. "You are in so much fucking trouble. Be glad that's the worst you got."

"Let go!"

Reno gripped his hair tighter, eliciting a hiss of pain from Axel. "And risk letting you escape? Mom would murder me! And then dad would find a way to revive me so he could torture me and _then_ kill me! Do you have any idea how worried they've been!"

"Axel, who is he?" Sora asked, worried.

"My idiot _brother_." Axel growled. "Let the fuck go, yo!" Feeling that he had given Reno sufficient warning, he pulled his arm forward and then swung it back - _hard - _into Reno's ribs. Reno let go and staggered backwards before regaining his bearings and swiftly delivering a sharp right hook to Axel's jaw.

"Enough!" Kairi yelled, and, before things could get too much worse, set up a barrier between them. "Before you two kill one another, would you mind explaining what's going on?"

"Hi, Reno!" Demyx said cheerfully, giving the older redhead a wave.

Kairi blinked, looking between the two redheads and Demyx. "Wait, you know him?"

"Of course!" The blond chirped. "Reno is Axel's older brother. Those two fight like this all the time. That's probably why they get along so well."

"Demyx, I don't know about you, but I don't consider _beating the crap out of each other _as 'getting along'." Kairi said, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's stupid."

Demyx shrugged. "If you say so."

Kairi rolled her eyes and dropped the shield.

The moment it was gone, Reno dove forward and twisted Axel's arms behind his back, pinning them there.

"Finally!" He muttered. "Now, you, _darling little brother_, are coming home for lunch and are going to explain to our parents what you're doing. _Got it memorized?" _He asked mockingly.

"Fuck you!" Axel spat. He didn't try to struggle, especially after the last time he struggled while in that hold and got his arm broken.

"You two must be the Kairi and Sora these two nimrods are always talking about." Reno said conversationally. "All three of you are welcome to tag along for lunch. Maybe you can help get him out of trouble."

"Lunch sounds great!" Sora spoke up.

"I swear, you and Axel always think of your stomachs." Kairi remarked, trying to hide a smile. Her stomach growled loudly and she tried to hide the blush that spread across her face by looking ahead.

"Looks like you have no room to talk." Axel said, grinning and wincing at the same time. He craned his neck to glare at his older brother, snarling in pain when Reno nonchalantly applied more pressure to her arms. "Let go, already! Sora's already decided that all of us are going back for lunch!"

Reno considered it for a moment and then let go and jumped back before Axel had a chance to retaliate. He put his hands in his pockets and smirked. "_So_,"

"Ignore him." Axel grumbled, turning his back on his brother. "He's just trying to be an ass right now. C'mon, my house is this way."

The others followed Axel through the town while Reno trailed behind them humming a jovial tune. By the time they got to the small brick house, Axel was about ready to rip Reno's head off; a fact that didn't go past the older redhead.

The front door opened as Axel was ready out to it and he gulped when he saw the tall dark-haired man standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

"D-dad!" He stuttered, searching for the correct words that wouldn't end with a gun pointed at his head. He shut his mouth when he couldn't think of anything better than, "Please don't kill me!" It was times like those that he really hated the fact that his parents were ex-Turks.

"Hi dad!" Reno piped up from the back. "Guess who I found sneaking around town!"

Their dad ignored him and opened the door wider. "All of you come inside." He stepped aside and let them all pass before reaching out and grasping Axel's shoulders. He steered his youngest son into the living room away from everyone else and sat him down for a talk.

"Dad, I--"

"Quiet." He ordered. "What were you thinking when you left without telling any of us? You had to have known how worried we would be, especially since Roxas has been missing for so long. Your mother thought for sure that you had been kidnapped just like he was."

Axel opened his mouth to make some retort, but thought better of it and slumped against the couch.

"Furthermore, you should have known better than to parade around town with Roxas's look-alike. People might react badly to seeing him; particularly Seifer." His dad continued. "I didn't raise you and Reno to go around acting like idiots. The two of you are Sinclair's; it's time you started acting like it."

"Tseng?" A blonde woman stepped into the room, her blue-green eyes scanning over the two of them in curiosity. Her eyes filled with tears when she saw Axel and she rushed forward to hug him tightly.

Axel hugged her back, wondering when the damn would break and unleash the full fury of his mother's wrath.

He wasn't disappointed as she pulled away and slid her pistil from a holster at her hip and pointed it at him. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that, for once, the safety was on.

"Where have you been?" She demanded.

"I was looking for Roxas." Axel said. He knew that with his mom it was best to answer any and all questions or else risk a bullet flying dangerously close.

"Why didn't you tell us? Did you think we wouldn't listen or understand? Damn it, Axel! What were you thinking?!"

"Miss Elena!" Demyx called from the living room, interrupting the loud interrogation. "Reno's eating all of the cookies again!"

Elena sighed and slid the gun back into the holster. "This isn't over." She informed Axel. "Both of you get up and come eat." She said before spinning on her heel and stalking into the kitchen to lecture her oldest on sharing food with guests.

After a humorous yet deadly lunch with Axel's family, during which Elena shot a hole in the wall trying to get Reno and Axel to shut up, the four of them ventured out into the country area of Sunrise Terrain to let Demyx's sister know that he was okay. It was only then that they were able to get back on the gummi ship and leave.

As they sped away from the world, Axel watched it disappear from sight. _'I won't come back here until I find Roxas.' _He vowed. _'I will find him. No matter what.'_

* * *

"You know, I think I _really_ like your family." Sora remarked to Axel.

It was only he and the redhead sitting in the back of the gummi ship, waiting for their turn to pilot the gummi ship. It had only been a few hours since they left the colorful world of Twilight Town and the brunet was already starting to get restless.

"You can have them." Axel muttered. "They're nothing but a pain in the neck."

"Yeah, but I bet life's never dull." Sora said. "And it means that you know how to fight and protect yourself. The only reason I was able to survive was because back home me and my friends would have sword fights on the beach. It was all in fun, but we still learned something, you know?"

"I suppose…"

Sora grinned and poked Axel in the side, eliciting a yelp from him.

"What was that for?" Axel asked, scooting away from him. "Shit, Sora! You know I hate that!"

"You need to smile." Sora said. "You look so depressed that it's making me feel sad. And I know that feeling sad leads to things not getting done, so cheer up!"

Axel was silent for a moment as he looked out the window at the stars that cheerfully twinkled in the distance. "It's hard." He said softly.

"Huh?"

"It's hard." Axel repeated. "To keep moving forward knowing that there's always a chance that I'll never be able to find Roxas. Sometimes I feel like I'm ready to break, you know? Like everything's hopeless."

"Don't say that!" Sora exclaimed. "Nothing's ever hopeless unless you let it be! And… and I won't let you give up hope!"

Axel stared at the brunet for a moment with an unreadable expression on his face. Then he chuckled. "Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?" He asked, amused. "Do you just pull these random thoughts from mid-air or something?"

"Sometimes." Sora admitted, grinning sheepishly. "Other times it comes from being alone and having a chance to think. Most of the time I think about what me and Riku are gonna do when we get back home, but every now and then…"

"It's hard to stay positive." Axel filled in.

Sora nodded and fell silent for a few minutes before he dropped his gaze to the floor and whispered, "I think I love him."

Axel chuckles. "Yeah. I feel the same way about Roxas."

"How long have you known?"

Axel thought for a moment, a faraway look entering his eyes. "I've known… since I first laid eyes on him that day at the beach. I was only seven, but even then I knew there was something special about him. Of course, at the time I was hoping for a best friend."

"Did he know that you liked him?" Sora asked.

Axel shrugged. "It's hard to tell. He may have, considering I was trying to make it a bit more obvious by draping myself all over him. Although he was kind of clueless at times. A lot like you." He teased, ruffling Sora's hair.

Sora tried to hide his smile with a scowl as he swatted away Axel's hand. "Knock it off."

A sudden burst of white caught their attention and they stared out the window in time to watch the white recede into iridescent cloud's and a pink sky. The two exchanged confused glances and then got up and went up front to question Kairi and Demyx.

"What did you guys do?" Axel asked loudly.

"I don't know!" Demyx exclaimed, panicking. "We were flying along and all of a sudden there was this portal in front of us and we didn't have time to turn away from it so we flew through it and now we're here and I have no idea where we're at!"

Axel raised an eyebrow and looked to Kairi for a better explanation.

"A portal appeared in front of us and we couldn't swerve." She said simply. "I'm looking for a place to land so we can figure out where we're at."

"Maybe we could ask whoever lives in that castle up there." Sora suggested, pointing to a really tall tower that stuck out over the clouds.

Kairi maneuvered the gummi ship over to the tower and landed it on the small stretch of ground around it, while Demyx tried to calm himself down.

Once they landed, Axel led the way off of the gummi ship, but then Kairi stopped walking as soon as her eyes landed on the tower.

"Kairi, come on." Sora called.

Kairi shook her head and ran back into the confines of the gummi ship, feeling ill from the sudden wave of disgust that washed over her. It took a few minutes of the others trying to cajole her into coming out before Axel gave up and walked back into the gummi ship and picked her up and put her over his shoulder.

"Put me down!"

"No."

"Axel, I don't think that's such a good--"

"Don't care."

Axel continued to carry Kairi until they were safely inside the tower and on the second floor. After that he made sure that there was someone behind her at all times so she couldn't turn around and run. That didn't stop her from trying.

"I don't like this place." Kairi stated.

"We noticed." Axel said. "That doesn't mean we're going to let you go running out of here. We're a team. That means we stick together. So keep walking."

Kairi huffed but continued to walk up the stairs.

It didn't take them long before they were walking into a circular room. In the middle of the room, an old man wearing starry blue robes sat behind a desk. He looked calmly at them as if he had been expecting their arrival.

"I had hoped my summons would reach you." He said.

Kairi clenched her fists and fought off the urge to make a rather scathing remark.

"I am Yen Sid. I taught King Mickey everything he knows about magic." He filled in when all he received were blank looks and the rather dark glare from Kairi. He cleared his throat and waved a hand over his desk. With a 'poof!' a large book appeared on the table, already opened to a chosen page. "Please, read this and then I will answer any questions you may have."

Kairi stood back while the others crowded around the book to read it. Somehow, she got the feeling she already knew what the book had to say.

'_What is wrong with me today?' _She wondered. _'I've never met him before but I get this feeling that I really hate him.' _She distractedly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"_The old bastard is up to his old tricks." _A feminine voice muttered to her left.

Kairi turned around and gasped when she saw Naminé standing there with a frown marring her pretty face. But just as suddenly as the blonde appeared, she vanished from sight as if she was never even there.

"These are the beings you are most familiar with." Yen Sid said, getting Kairi's attention.

A hologram of a Shadow heartless appeared, followed by two more creatures. One was a strange white creature and the other a cloaked figure.

"The heartless are creatures that seek out humans and steal their hearts. However, those humans don't merely disappear; without their hearts they become what are known as nobodies. Nobodies also seek out hearts because they lack them. Because of this, the heartless and nobodies are commonly seen fighting one another when there are no humans around." Yen Sid waved his hand and the images of the heartless and white nobodies disappeared. "There is yet a third being you will encounter. They are also nobodies, albeit a different sort. These are being who retain their human form but have no hearts. At one time there were thirteen of them who banded together to reach a common goal. Presently, only eight of them remain."

"We've met them." Demyx remembered. "In Hollow Bastion. They came down and confronted me and Kairi."

"They've already begun to move." Yen Sid said calmly. "Through those doors you will find something that will aid you in battle. There is little more I can do aside from that and provide you with the necessary information."

"And even that's only half truthful." Kairi hissed. Before she realized what she was doing, she had crossed the room and pushed open the double doors that the sorcerer had mentioned.

The three boys quickly chased after her, each wondering why she was acting that way.

On the other side of the door, they were greeted by three kind fairies in red, blue, and green.

"Oh dear, this will never do." One of them said, gliding over to Sora. The other two followed and began fussing over the brunet's small clothes, while he cast bewildered looks at his friends.

"We'll get you all fixed up, dear." The red one said. "Now, maybe something like this…" She flicked her wand at him and his jacket turned a shade of red that looked almost pink.

"No, no! Blue!" The blue one similarly flicked her wand at him and his clothes changed to blue.

"Green!" The last one insistently cried, also flicking her wand at Sora.

The argument over color went on, growing steadily worse as the clothing style changed along with the color. It was only when Sora found himself wearing a poofy pink dress and gloves that he called a stop to the argument.

"Can you please just choose already?" He asked, exasperated.

The three fairies stopped with a gasp and gave him a good look before dissolving into giggles. One of them produced a camera and snapped a few quick photo's before Sora could realize what happened.

"Alright, all together girls." The green one said. "One, two, three!"

For the first time, all three of them flicked their wands at Sora at the same time and finally produced a result that everyone could be happy with.

"Ooo, how very dashing!" Cried one of the fairies.

Sora looked down at his clothes and was happy to see that he was no longer wearing a dress and that his new clothes didn't contain the slightest hint of pink. They were darker than he was used to and the yellow belts added a weight that would have bothered him before he left the island. He puffed up proudly and beamed at the fairies. "Thanks!"

The fairies admired their work for a moment before choosing their next victim: Kairi. They swarmed around the poor girl, whispering things to each other so they wouldn't end up in the same predicament, and then stood back and cast their magic around her.

Their comforting magic washed over Kairi and left a tingly feeling behind as they formed her brand new clothes. She was able to watch as black gloves covered her hands and her blue jeans faded to leave most of her leg exposed up until her thigh, which was where her new short pink dress ended. Looking down to her feet she could see that her old beat up sneakers had been replaced by a pair of pink-and-white ones.

She looked up to take in her friends' reactions and giggled when she saw Demyx staring at her with his mouth open.

"Wow, Kairi." He breathed. "You look so pretty."

"It's awful short, isn't it?" Axel remarked.

His comment resulted in the fairies surrounding him to figure out what his new clothes should be. He watched them apprehensively as they whispered to one another and then looked at him with determination in their eyes. Gulping, he shut his eyes as their magic washed over him.

Axel heard Kairi snicker and cautiously opened his eyes and looked down. The first thing he noticed was the dark green turtleneck he was wearing, or rather its lack of long sleeves. He found a worn leather band around each of his wrists as well as a thicker one around his upper arm. "Leather pants?" He asked, looking over at the fairies.

"It seemed like it suited you." The red one said cheerfully.

"Personally, I like the belts." The green one piped up, smiling. "The green beads add a nice touch, yes?"

Axel checked his belts and found that one of them did indeed have a string of beads hanging from it. He ran his finger over a pretty blue one and found himself reminded of the color of Roxas's eyes.

"Yeah, Axel. Your outfit is _so _much better than mine." Kairi said teasingly.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Shut up, you pink hooker." He replied in the same teasing tone.

"At least I don't look like I'm into _bondage._" The girl shot back.

There was a moment of silence as they all looked at Axel and let Kairi's words sink in. Then Kairi burst into giggles and Demyx started laughing.

Grinning, Sora said: "Holy crap, she's right!"

"S-she to-totally pwned you, Axel." Demyx stuttered through laughter.

"Shut up." Axel growled, regretting having ever introduced Demyx to the world of online gaming.

Demyx calmed down enough to speak and then looked eagerly at the fairies. "Can I make a request?"

"Of course, dearie." The red fairy said.

"I want something watery and um... Musical! Yeah, something musical and watery!" The blond said enthusiastically.

The fairies exchanged glances and nodded before flicking their wands at him. They waited with a bated breath to see how it would turn out and were pleased to see that it worked.

Demyx happily ran a hand over his new silk shirt before moving onto his blue vest and then giggling over his tie with bubble music notes. He wiggled his toes and looked down when they met no resistance. He beamed when he noted the blue shorts and sandals.

"All of your clothes are waterproof." The blue fairy informed him. "They also enhance your water abilities."

"And yours," The red fairy looked to Axel. "are completely fireproof. They'll help you with control as well as enhancement."

"All of your clothes are made to mend themselves." The green one spoke up. "They're also self-cleaning. Kairi, yours enhance your light magic and your defense. And Sora, yours is even more special."

"Oh yes, you can draw on the strength of your friends when you're in need of it." The red one said. "Just be careful of when and how you use it. It's a very powerful ability that you must exercise control with."

Sora nodded. "Okay."

"You four should get going." The blue one advised. "After all, it would be difficult to get anything done if you were to stay here."

The four once again gave their thanks and then left the room. Once they were gone the three fairies sighed.

"I do hope that they'll be okay." The blue one murmured worriedly.

"Of course they will." The red one said. "They're the Chosen Ones."

"That's what worries me." The green one whispered. "They are only four right now. There's suppose to be eight."

The three fell silent.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Well, I'm hoping this longer chapter will make up for the length of time it took me to finish this. I'm still trying to figure out a writing schedule as well as find good places to write where I won't be interrupted. The couches at school are _really _comfy, but I've found that my friends can become hindrances when I'm trying to write. I can't help but talk to them when they sit down next to me and start talking and goofing off. Maybe I should start hiding off in one of the corner couches when I want to get some writing done.

I'm trying to get the pace of the story to pick up and keep rolling for the rest of the chapters. Maybe I'll be able to work in some cliffhangers.

Next chapter will have a nice time jump, which should help me pick up the pace. That's it for now!


	6. Chapter 6: Trouble on the Horizon

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

0-0-0-0

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 6: Trouble on the Horizon_

Roxas watched in amusement as Mnexina paced around her room. The two of them had gotten over their fight and were finally speaking to one another again, much to Zexion's relief.

Zexion was not in the room with them and was instead scouring the library and Vexen's abandoned labs for anything that could be useful in his research. He had already gathered a large mass of books in his room and was beginning to run out of room, but that wasn't going to stop him. He already had Mnexina's permission to put books in her room when he ran out of space.

"What's so bad about Hollow Bastion?" Roxas asked.

"Nothing," Mnexina said distractedly.

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Nothing?" He repeated disbelievingly. "'Nothing' doesn't get you this worked up. What is wrong?"

"I have a bad feeling." Mnexina said, pausing in her steps for just a moment. "Hollow Bastion is full of heartless and it's hard to keep control of the lesser nobodies. Even the Dusks are difficult there."

"What is he making you take out there?"

"Assassins, Samurai, Dusks, and Dancers." Mnexina recited. "I'm not so worried about the Dancers; they're not all that bad. The most I have to worry about with them is being thrown into the air. It's the Assassins that I'm worried about. They're nothing but trouble."

"I thought the Sorcerers were the worst." Roxas remarked.

"They're up there." Mnexina said, resuming her pacing. "Thankfully I don't have to deal with those today. Oh, _Gaia _what am I going to do?"

Roxas remained silent. She would work it out in time. Nothing that he could say would help her anyway.

"It's not like anyone else has had any luck in confronting Sora!" She yelled in frustration. "What the hell does he expect of me? Does he think that by some miracle I'll be able to slow them down and keep them from figuring things out any faster? That's more of Xigbar's area of expertise! He's the one who can say shit and keep people trying to figure out what the hell he means! If we're lucky, he won't even know what he's saying and it'll be something that's the complete opposite of what they need!" She huffed and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Sometimes I wish I knew what the Superior was thinking."

"Whatever it is, it's probably nothing that any of us could understand." Roxas said. "If Zexion's right, then we're lucky the Superior is able to gather his thoughts enough to look like he's acting rationally. He's not so far gone yet that the others are noticing a difference."

"No… not yet." Mnexina agreed, rising to pace around the room once more. "I need a plan. A good plan."

"You need Zexion for that."

"I said 'plan' not 'scheme'."

"_How __**touching**_._"_

Mnexina whirled around, her chain already flickering to life in her hands. Roxas clenched his fists and glared at the air where the voice came from.

The air warped and Zexion suddenly faded into view with a smirk on his face and an armful of books. "Nice to know I can still sneak up on someone. So, what's this about needing a plan?" He asked as he set the stack of books on Mnexina's desk.

"The Superior's sending me out to Hollow Bastion to deal with Sora and his friends," Mnexina said. "And where everyone else has so far failed, he expects me to succeed."

"That goes along with our earlier theory," Zexion noted. "He's trying to get us out of the way so we don't interfere with his plans."

"The only question is, what are those plans?" Mnexina said, sounding annoyed.

Zexion raised an eyebrow when she began pacing around the room once again. "Surely this doesn't have you worried."

"I don't like not knowing what is going on."

"Obviously."

Mnexina shot a glare at the dark-haired male. "If all you're going to do is stand there and make scathing remarks, then I revoke my offer for you to store books in my room."

"If you prefer that I say nothing, then I'll go on back to the library." Zexion said, heading for the door.

"No."

He paused and looked back at her. "No?"

"I can't do this without you. Without either of you," She amended. "We need a plan and a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Any ideas?"

"A few," Zexion said. "You may not like them."

"Something is better than nothing."

Zexion nodded and began explaining the first of his ideas.

0-0-0-0

Sora leapt through the doors to the gummi ship and ran excitedly to the wall. He leaned over it and stared up at the castle that towered over the town. "Wow…!"

Axel, Kairi, and Demyx exited the ship one after the other and paused a moment to watch the brunet awe over how things had changed in Hollow Bastion.

"I'm going to laugh when you fall." Axel remarked. "C'mon, Leon's waiting for us."

Sora reluctantly backed away from the wall and followed his friends through town. Every now and then one of the shops would distract him, particularly when he came across one of Donald's nephews and decided he wanted to talk to them.

The four of them finally made it to the Borough where Leon and Yuffie were outside waiting for them.

Yuffie waved when she saw Sora and, ignoring Leon, ran forward and gave him a big hug. "Sora! I was wondering when you'd be back! We all knew it had to be soon since Kairi and Demyx and Axel were just here about three weeks ago." She stepped back and beamed at all four of them. "We have something for you guys. Leon thought of them."

Leon let out a soft sigh, wondering why both Yuffie and Aerith thought it was so funny. Membership cards were cool, damn it!

Yuffie handed each of them their own purple card.

"'_Honorary Member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee.'_" Demyx read. "Sweet!" He proudly admired it for a moment before stowing it away in a zippered pocket. When he looked up, he saw everyone else looking at him with raised eyebrows. "What?" He asked defensively. "Membership cards are cool!"

"Sure, Demyx," Axel muttered, rolling his eyes. "So, anything we can help out with while we're here?"

"Actually, there is." Leon said. "The heartless from the gorge found a hole in one of the walls. We need you guys to get in there and fight them off while we find a way to patch it up. All you need to do is keep more from coming into town. Don't run off and try to fight them all."

"Got it," Sora said, nodding. "So, where's this hole?"

"Follow me."

Leon led them through the Bailey, pointing out to Sora the two things that were troubling him and hindering the process of rebuilding the town. Then he led them down the stairs where Kairi and Demyx had their first encounter with the Organization.

"That door leads to the castle." He said, pointing to a yellow gate. "We try to keep it closed so that civilians don't get curious and wander in there."

"And there's the hole." Yuffie said. Although she didn't need to, she pointed out the rather large and obvious hole. "Hmm… looks a bit bigger than before."

A round and spiky heartless crashed into the hole, sending a spray of rock everywhere.

"And that would be why." Axel remarked, summoning his chakrams. He ignited one and threw it at the heartless, knocking it back. "Demyx, send some clones through so we can get in there without getting beat up."

Demyx nodded and struck up a light tune on his sitar. "Dance, water! Dance!"

Twenty water clones rushed up from the ground and danced through the hole, randomly knocking into heartless and turning into music notes. Axel and Sora rushed in after them and were shortly followed by Kairi and then Demyx. Leon and Yuffie set to work on making a door to cover the hole.

Axel flung himself into battle, making sure he knew where his friends were before throwing his chakrams. He kept an eye on each of them just in case someone would get into trouble.

"Kairi! Come back!" Demyx suddenly yelled.

Axel looked over in time to see Kairi break through the crowd of heartless to chase after one of the white nobody's.

"It got my munny purse!" Kairi yelled back. "I'll be right back!"

Sora and Demyx tried to chase after her, but were blocked by a group of heartless.

"Keep your heads in the fight!" Axel yelled at them, spinning his chakrams. He ignited each of them and then threw them into the swarm. "_Eat flames_!"

Kairi chased the Dusk over the rocky terrain until she was able to get a good shot at it. Once it faded away, she ran over the tiled blue and green ground and scooped up the purse. She tied it back onto her belt as she stood up and looked around, taking in the broken pillars and the odd ground covering.

"What…? What is this place?" She murmured. "It looks so familiar." She began to walk over to one of the pillars but stopped when she heard a voice.

"I'm rather shocked. I expected all of you to come running."

Kairi spun on her heel and looked all around in search of the mysterious voice. "Who's there?" She demanded.

A black portal appeared before her and through it stepped a feminine, cloaked being. A chain appeared in her hands as she continued walking towards Kairi. In response, Kairi called her floral keyblade to her hands.

"What do you want with me?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from wavering. _'I can't do this on my own.'_ She thought desperately. _'Sora. Axel. Demyx. Where are you guys?'_

"_You're never alone, Kairi." _A gentle voice whispered in her ear.

Kairi's eyes widened. "Naminé?" She whispered.

The figure snapped her chain at Kairi, who quickly knocked it away with her keyblade before running forward to attack. The figure stumbled back before she could get even one hit in and then abruptly turned and ran.

"Get back here!" Kairi yelled, chasing after her. "_Blizzard!" _She pointed her keyblade at the figure's feet and a stream of ice shot out and froze them to the ground.

The ice shattered with a loud crack as the figure toppled over backwards, her hood falling back to uncover her face.

To Kairi, it was if it was all happening in slow motion. As soon as she saw the blonde hair and the flash of bright blue eyes, she knew who it was. "Naminé…!" She breathed.

"Stay away from me!" Mnexina yelled, swinging her chain in the other girl's direction.

Kairi easily dodged it once and then twice before blocking it with the keyblade so it would swing around it. With a practiced move, she slammed her weapon blade first into the ground, trapping the chain.

Mnexina cursed and tried to jerk it loose, but quickly gave up and leapt to her feet. "I said, stay away!"

"You're her." Kairi said. "You're Naminé's Nobody, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" Mnexina yelled, her eyes blazing. "That doesn't mean that I'm her, because I'm not! I'm _me!_"

"But that doesn't mean there's not a part of her left." Kairi said determinedly.

Before Mnexina could realize what was happening, Kairi dashed forward and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air stilled and all sound was filtered from the area. A deep, resonating pulse emanated from the two of them, followed by a bright flash of light.

As her eyes fluttered shut, Kairi saw Mnexina change into a form she knew very well. Her hair lightened to wheat blonde and her eyes darkened to a pretty sky blue.

Relieved, Kairi let herself fall.

From atop a cliff, Zexion watched the exchange with no expression on his face. Inside, however, his mind was racing to find an answer. _'This isn't right. What happened? What went wrong?'_ A shiver ran down his spine. _'I have to report this to the Superior.' _He realized. _'But what do I tell him?'_

0-0-0-0

"Kairi!" Sora yelled, running over to the redhead girl. "Kairi, wake up!" He skidded to a halt, kneeling down to help her sit up. "Come on, Kairi! Say something!"

Demyx quickly joined Sora in trying to wake up Kairi, but all of Axel's attention was on the black hooded figure laying several feet away. He cautiously walked over, putting some space between them in case he had to quickly back up. It took a moment for the blonde hair to register, but when it did he rushed to help her up.

"Naminé," he whispered. "Hey, you alright?"

Blue eyes flickered open and looked at Axel in confusion before the confusion cleared and she smiled. "Hey," she said softly.

"You're here," Axel said. "How are you here? I thought- we all thought-…" He looked away.

Naminé reached up to gently touch Axel's earring. "This is new."

"Yeah…"

"Things change so quickly." She said. "More quickly than anyone can keep up with. In time, everything explains itself." She gave him a tender smile. "I'll explain later. Just… for now… I'd like to sleep a little more." With a sleepy sigh, she closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

Axel carefully slid his arms under her and lifted her up. He slowly got to his feet so he wouldn't disturb her rest, and then he turned to face Sora, Demyx, and Kairi.

Demyx gasped when he saw Naminé. "Is that…?"

Axel nodded. "Yeah. Come on, we need to get back to the Borough."

0-0-0-0

"Gone?" Roxas repeated in disbelief. "What do you mean she's gone?"

Zexion said nothing. He knew it was just the shock talking and that Roxas would get back to his senses soon enough and try to get the whole story. Sure enough, it was only a few seconds later before Roxas stopped pacing and sat down and looked expectantly at him.

"What happened?"

"She encountered that Kairi girl and some kind of reaction happened. Presumably, she regained her heart as a result. She did revert back to her Somebody's form, after all." Zexion said.

"I can't believe this." Roxas said miserably. He could feel his throat begin to close up as his eyes began to tear up. The one person he could talk to about anything was gone. He still had Zexion, sure, but that wasn't the same. "How could this happen?"

"Hearts are strange things." Zexion said, sounding bored. "They're unpredictable."

"Yeah…" Roxas sighed, massaging his temples. "Man, my head."

"Sleep it off." Zexion suggested as he walked for the door. "I'm going to check if any of this is in Vexen's journals. And remember, you have a mission with Saix and Xigbar tomorrow."

Roxas nodded once, wincing as a sharp pain arched over his skull.

Zexion left him alone and it didn't take long before Roxas was curled up on his bed in blue pajama's, fast asleep.

0-0-0-0

"_That's not a good idea, A---" Little Roxas said, frowning._

_The redhead boy grinned. "Of course it is! And with your help, my science fair project is gonna be the very best one!" _

_Little Roxas sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sure, A---. I just don't think that a paper maché volcano will win first place."_

"_But it's not _just_ a paper maché volcano!" The redhead exclaimed, waving his arms excitedly. "It's so much more than that! It's… it's a bond of our friendship! Yeah, that's it. It's our bond of friendship!"_

_Little Roxas stared at him for a minute. "You say such weird things."_

"_You say that and yell at me whenever I tell you he's a weirdo." A blond boy crossly remarked as he walked past them. "Heh, I see how it is."_

"_Shut up, Seifer," Little Roxas said, sticking his tongue out at the boy. "He's my best friend. Only I can call him weird."_

_Seifer rolled his eyes and continued walking. "Tell mom I'm going out to hang with Fuu and Rai."_

"_Sure." Little Roxas replied._

"_Have fun hanging with your little 5__th__ grade friends." The redhead said in a bored tone. "And if you see Reno and his morons, give him heck from me."_

_Seifer gave a quick salute and hurried out the door. He and the older redhead didn't get along very well and were constantly fighting over what they saw as "their" territory._

"_Now… hand me that spiky thing over there."_

0-0-0-0

_End Chapter_

0-0-0-0

I'm sorry for how short this chapter is especially when compared to how long it took me to finish it. On the other hand, you get to imagine a 4th grade Roxas, a 5th grade Seifer, and a High School Freshman Reno. Fun, fun. Oh, and of course the "mysterious" 6th grade redhead.

Okay, so November is NaNoWriMo which either means that I'll be spending all of my time on my chosen novel project and completely ignoring this one, or my brain will decide it wants to split itself in 3 directions and simultaneously complete a novel, this fanfiction, and my research paper for my English 111 class. Yeah, next month is going to be _fun._ (That was sarcasm, folks. And the only reason I say that is because _no one_ ever gets when I'm being sarcastic.)

So, lots of "fun" stuff going on at school with my friends right now. The same kind of "fun" that next month will be. To half of them I'm about ready to say "screw you" and play the avoidance game because they're pissing me off. (okay, so it's only one that I'm mad at, the other I'm annoyed with because they never stands up for themself.)

So, I'll try to be a writing maniac this week and get another chapter finished before November hits. I can't promise anything though. But on the other hand, I can promise something else.

There's a series I'm working on with a friend, and it's fanfiction but it's in chat/script form so I can't post it here. So it's on DeviantArt. It's called Random Chat and we have 2 of them up so far. Over the weekend we did Random Chat 3, so I'll be getting that posted during the week once I get all of the html work done.


	7. Chapter 7: A Little Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 7: A Little Time_

Kairi knocked on the doorframe to the room Naminé was resting and then stuck her head in with a smile on her face. "Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked upon seeing the blonde sitting on the futon staring out the window.

Naminé blinked and looked over at her. "I've been better," she said softly. "What about you?"

Kairi shrugged. "A little disoriented, but I'll be fine."

Naminé nodded. "That's normal. You did used up a lot of energy."

Kairi walked into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. Nibbling on her lower lip, she tried to think of something to say.

"This is pretty," Naminé remarked, tugging gently on the hood to Kairi's dress. "There's a ton of magic in it, too. Where'd you get it?"

"Huh?" Kairi asked before glancing down at her dress. "Oh, this? There were these three fairies that we met who wanted to help us out. And this old wizard guy…"

A scowl marred Naminé's pretty face. "Yen Sid," She practically spat before uttering a remark that would have anyone looking at her in shock. "I'm guessing he still thinks he's all-knowing just because he trained the King in magic, huh?" She sighed. "It's a good thing I wasn't with you guys. I would have ended up magicking him straight out of that tower of his."

"On purpose?" Kairi asked in shock.

Naminé shook her head. "That's the problem. It wouldn't be on purpose and then he'd spend the rest of the time making sneaky remarks on how Merlin's an inept Master who can't teach his student to control her magic," she huffed angrily. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and said, "and he thinks he can do better? He's the only one who gets my magic to react so negatively."

"Wait, wait, he wants you to be his student or…?"

Naminé nodded. "I'm one of the few powerful White Witches left. To him, it would have been a great honor to train me. Unfortunately for him, I already knew Merlin and chose him way before it came time for my training."

"How long have you known Merlin?" Kairi asked curiously.

"For as long as I can remember," Naminé said. "My earliest memory of him is when he went to the castle to test the princess for magic and I bumped into him."

Kairi shifted, a confused look spreading across her face. "Castle? I didn't know you lived in a castle."

"My dad was an advisor of the king of my world," Naminé reminisced. "My mom died when I was a baby, so it was just me and him. It's weird… I can't really picture him anymore. It's been so long…."

"Knock, knock," chimed Aerith's sweet voice from the doorway. "How are we feeling?" She asked, stepping into the room.

"A little better," Naminé said. "I'd love to get outside soon, though. Today's nice and sunny," she hinted.

Aerith giggled. "Alright, I can take a hint. I'll talk to Leon and Yuffie about it when they get back from patrol. They'll need to secure the area. In the meantime, how about some food?"

"That would be wonderful," Naminé said. "I haven't had any good food in… well, a long time," she chuckled dryly. "It's almost a shame that Number Eight betrayed us. He was the best chef we had."

Kairi and Aerith exchanged surprised looks.

"Who?" Kairi asked.

Naminé shook her head. "Nobody. It doesn't matter anymore. Do you think I could have a little time to myself before I eat? I need to… collect my thoughts."

Aerith nodded. "Of course. Kairi, would you give me a hand in the kitchen?"

Kairi nodded and left with the older woman, leaving Naminé alone to think.

With a heavy sigh, the blonde girl let herself fall backwards to lay on the futon. "What a mess," she mumbled. "What am I going to do? Roxas… Zexion… I wish you guys were here…" She lay there for a moment longer and then sat up with a gasp. "That's it! I just need to get in contact with them!" She held her hand up to rest over her heart as if that would prevent it pulsing rapidly from even the slight movement she made. _'It'll be a few days before I can try safely. That shouldn't be too bad.'_

* * *

Days passed with Naminé's strength growing every day. She was soon able to get out of the bed and move around the small house without any problems. When she learned that Naminé was feeling better, Aerith assigned her a few simple chores to do that she hoped would help her keep getting better.

For the first week or so, Naminé didn't mind too much. She knew Aerith was only trying to help, and to be honest, she didn't mind helping out around the house. The only thing that really bothered her was needing an escort in order to go outside. By the time the second week arrived, Naminé was sick of Aerith's mothering.

"I really think you should wait for one of the others to get back," Aerith worriedly said.

"Nothing is going to happen," Naminé said told her. "And even if something _does _happen I won't be so far from the house that I can't make it back inside to safety. And the claymore's are working perfectly fine."

Aerith didn't look very convinced. "Alright. But be careful!"

Naminé smiled and replied with a quick, "I always am!" before hurrying out the door before Aerith could change her mind.

Once she got out the door she breathed a sigh of relief. For a brief moment she slumped against the door, amazed by how stubborn Aerith could be. Then she took a deep breath and walked a ways away so she would be hidden from view. She quickly cast a simple level 1 Scan spell and was relieved to find that there was no one nearby.

Just to be safe, she took a sip from an Ether she smuggled out of the house without Aerith's knowledge. With the burst of fresh energy washing through her, she held out her hand and concentrating on calling up one of the very familiar dark portals. The dark energy sparked around her hands before flooding out to form a roving sphere of energy. When it hit the ground and threw up tendrils of energy, Naminé knew that it had worked.

"Perfect," she breathed tiredly. "I just hope it takes me where I wanted. Here goes everything," she whispered before walking into the portal.

A few minutes later, Naminé finally stepped through the other side of the portal and promptly fell three feet to crash on the floor of a room. Groaning, she sat up and looked around. "Damn," she cursed. "Someone will have heard that." She looked around to get her bearings and then stood up.

'_Okay, this is Zexion's room. I guess I should be glad that he wasn't in here when I fell in. And I should be even __**more**__ thankful that I didn't fall one room over into Saix's room.' _She shudders at the very thought of what would happen in that situation. _'Okay, first thing is first…'_

She quietly crept over to the door and slowly opened it before peering around the hallway. Knowing that casting any magic would only get her caught more quickly, she didn't bother using Scan again.

Seeing no one coming, Naminé slipped out into the hall and then lightly dashed down it to her old room. Just as she was shutting the door, Zexion walked out of his room with a frown marring his face.

* * *

Back at Hollow Bastion, Axel returned early from his patrol after nearly setting fire to some of the new construction efforts. The first place he went was back to Naminé's room in hopes that he could get a chance to talk to her without the others hovering around. To his surprise, she wasn't there. So he backtracked through the rest of the house in search of her.

"Hey, Aerith? Have you seen Naminé?" He asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"She went outside for a breath of fresh air," Aerith said. "Can you go check on her? I'm a bit worried that she might run into trouble."

Axel shrugged. "Yeah, sure," he said, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. He chose not to remark how Naminé was a big girl and could take care of herself. He had too much respect for Aerith and knew that she couldn't help but worry about those she cared about.

He left the house after snagging a freshly made cookie and continued his search for his little blonde friend.

* * *

Naminé ran her hands over the skirt of her new dress as she studied herself in the mirror. "Good, it still fits the same," she murmurs as she adjusts her right sleeve over her shoulder. "I was worried there for a moment."

She froze when she heard the door click shut and a voice say, "I would say that is the least of your worries right now."

"Zexion," she said in a hushed tone. "How did you find me so soon?"

"I was in my room when you crashed in," he said calmly. "You should really pay more attention to what you are doing."

Naminé let her hands fall to her sides. "So, now what? Will you turn me in to the Superior?"

"No."

Naminé turned around, her eyes wide in surprise. "You won't? Really?" She asked hopefully.

"Why give him another way to destroy us?" Zexion asked. "Besides, I am now absolutely sure that he knew what would happen if he sent you out there. Either that or he was hoping for your death."

"If you mean Mnexina's death--"

"I mean both of you," Zexion interrupted. "Because either way, you are a wildcard. You know too much about his goals. You know too much about what has been going on since the heartless were able to invade the worlds again."

"Because of you," Naminé said.

Zexion dipped his head in acknowledgement. "True. I was part of the team who researched the heartless. And I do believe that it is because of us that Hollow Bastion was submerged in darkness. It is not something I am proud of." He paused for a moment to look over Naminé in her new dress. "I must say, it looks significantly better on you now that your hair is a pale blonde."

"Don't change the subject," Naminé snapped, her eyes flashing icy blue. "And that's not what I meant! You weren't the only one who was curious."

"True, but I still contributed," Zexion said.

"What I _meant _was that I know most of what I know because of you," Naminé said.

Zexion frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Naminé looked at him in surprise. "You mean, you don't remember? As Ienzo, you lived in the castle in Hollow Bastion. Or else you were there so often that it seemed like you lived there."

Zexion turned away from her, hiding his face behind a curtain of hair. "Unfortunately, I have no memories of that time. I may have during the early years I spent as a nobody, but over time they faded, leaving me with only traces of what may be regret."

"That's horrible," Naminé whispered. "I had no idea…"

"It's not something we talk about," Zexion said. "Sensitive subject, you see. It may cause Saïx to go ballistic and kill us all."

Naminé giggled and then immediately apologized. "I'm sorry, it's not really all that funny. I don't know why I laughed."

"Perhaps you're feeling overwhelmed by your feelings after not having them for so long," Zexion remarked. "You should be increasingly careful until you can properly handle them again."

Naminé sighed. "Now, Zexion, how many times must I tell you? We may not have physical hearts, but we that does not mean we do not have feelings."

Zexion was silent for a moment before he turned his head to look at her with his good eye. "It's rather remarkable how similar the two of you are," he said. Then he looked back to the door and left without another word.

"Sheesh, cryptic as always," Naminé muttered. "I do wonder… what did he mean by that?"

* * *

Axel cursed as one of the claymore's knocked away the Shadow heartless he was fighting. _'Mental note: complain to Leon about how damn annoying these things are,' _he thought as he threw his chakram up at the heartless. It sliced effortlessly through the creature and returned to Axel's hand.

"Damn it, Naminé! Where the hell are you?" He cursed, looking around for any sign of her. "This isn't the time to play hide-and-seek!"

_Crash_

Axel spun on his heel, one chakram held high in a throwing pose. His jaw dropped when he saw that it was Naminé, stumbling her way over a garbage can lid in a dress he didn't recognize. He quickly took in the one-sleeved white shirt and the black tank top underneath of it, as well as the matching skirt with the very familiar scalloped edging.

"Wow," he murmured. "Where'd you find that? It doesn't seem very Aerith-ish."

For the past two weeks, Naminé had been wearing Aerith and Yuffie's old clothes until she could get out and pick her own. To see her in something which fit her and her personality so well was a bit of a shock.

Naminé looked up at him in surprise and almost fell over when she saw who it was. "O-oh, Axel! Hello, I didn't see you there."

Axel frowned. "Are you feeling alright? Why were you over in that corner anyway?"

Naminé bit her lower lip and looked around for an escape. "Oh, I, um, that is…"

"Naminé?" Axel said, his voice growing harder. "_Where _were you?"

Naminé hesitated for a moment and then sighed. "I went to visit a friend," she said softly. "That's where I got this. It's mine. R-- A friend," she quickly corrected. "My friend gave it to me. He thought it suited me -- or rather Mnexina -- perfectly."

"So, is this friend of yours trustworthy or should I be worried?" Axel asked suspiciously.

"If you knew who it was I went to visit, you wouldn't be worried," Naminé said, avoiding the real question. Then she smiled brightly and looped her arms around her back. "So, should we head on back to Merlin's? I bet everyone else is back from patrol by now." Without waiting for a reply, she walked away from him in a cheerful manner. As she brushed past him, he noticed the star on the white sleeve as well as on the skirt and her white boots.

Bewildered, Axel quickly followed after her. _'What the hell is going on? Did I miss something important?'_

"Demyx!"

"Nami-- whoa! Nice dress!"

"Thanks."

"What is wrong with my friends?" Axel muttered to himself. "Either they're completely oblivious or they are so obscure about random as hell shit."

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity," Kairi mentioned as she walked up behind him.

"No, but being born into my family is," Axel replied. "You've met them. You can't live with them and still be sane."

Kairi chuckled. "I don't know about that. It seemed like you turned out pretty decent."

"Wow, what a compliment," Axel said sarcastically.

"Isn't it?" Kairi asked sweetly. "Come on, lets get over there and see what Demyx is all excited about."

"Yeah…"

* * *

A week later, after Aerith deemed Naminé fit for travel, the group of 5 found themselves in the world of the Pride Lands and in a rather unusual predicament. Throughout all of their trips to the different world, with the exception of Atlantica, the only thing that had changed was their clothing. In the Pride Lands, they completely changed form.

Sora took the form of a brown lion cub, with the makings of a darker brown mane. Axel, much to Sora's chagrin, took the form of a reddish-brown adult lion with a very spiky bright red mane.

The others, however, were quite a bit different. Kairi was a long-legged, red, African gazelle. Naminé was a small, white mouse, but was noticeably bigger than common mice. And Demyx took on the form of a leggy cheetah with a ruffled mess of fur on top of his head, just like his human hairstyle.

And even better, the five of them have gotten split up during their search for a lion named Simba, who everyone says is the true King of Pride Rock. And of course it was Sora who led them to believe he was still alive, after telling one of the female lions (Nala) that he had fought alongside of him not very long ago.

It was for that reason that Naminé found herself scurrying along a rocky cliffside in search of the elusive lion king.

"Sora seriously needs to start _talking _to us before agreeing to search for someone," she muttered to herself. "We only have a set amount of time before everything starts to fall apart. We can't keep stopping for every little --" she let out a terrified squeak as something big and heavy fall down on her. Then she felt herself being lifted into the air and came face to face with a pair of familiar royal blue eyes. "Roxas!" she cried in relief.

The blue eyes widened and the golden lion dropped her to the ground and took a step back in surprise. "How do you know my name?" he growled.

"Roxas, it's me," Naminé said. "It's Naminé."

"Na-mi-né?" he tested out the name. "It sounds familiar…"

Naminé sighed. "Mnexina," she filled in.

"You're her Somebody?" Roxas gasped. "But how? That's not possible!"

"I'm not entirely sure how it happened," Naminé said. "What I do know is that my heart was kept by Kairi, the princess of Hollow Bastion, and that when she and Mnexina came in contact with one another, my heart was exchanged and… well, here I am."

Roxas regarded her with curiosity for a moment. "So… are you Mnexina? Or are you Naminé?"

"I… I don't know," Naminé responded truthfully. "How are things back at the castle?" she asked, changing the subject.

Roxas sighed and sat back on his haunches. "Increasingly weirder. And Zexion's been spending most of his time locked away in his room. With that and all of the missions Xemnas has been sending me on, I don't get to see him very often anymore."

"Oh…" Naminé fell silent for a moment. "Roxas, I don't think it would be a good idea for you to stay there anymore. Why don't you come travel with--"

"No," Roxas interrupted, standing up. "There are things I need to know, and the only way I will find out is if I stay at the castle. Besides, someone needs to make sure Zexion takes care of himself. And I'll be able to warn you of Xemnas's plans."

"Okay," Naminé reluctantly said. "At least come visit me in Twilight Town. Once we leave here, we're going back to Hollow Bastion and then we're going there. Sora thinks he has a clue that points to there, which is probably true if the clue is from who I think it is."

Roxas scowled. "If it's that white-haired bas--"

"Be nice," Naminé chastised, interrupting him. "He was only doing what he thought he needed to do in order for Sora to awaken. It's not his fault that Diz gets everything wrong."

"I still don't like him," Roxas told her. "And if he calls me 'Sora' one more time, I'm going to kick his ass even worse than I did the first time out by Memory Skyscraper." He got to his feet when he spotted a golden-blond blur dashing across the desert-like plains. "Someone's coming."

"Riku shouldn't," Naminé said, getting to her feet. She figured that it had to be one of her friends. "Remember, come find me in Twilight Town!" she reminded him as she clambered over the rocks.

Roxas nodded. "Right. Twilight Town," he sighed. "Easier said than done," he muttered as he turned around and left.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

I really feel like I could have spent a bit more time on this chapter, but at the same time I _really _wanted to get it finished because it's been _**forever **_since I last updated. The only thing I'm not very happy with is the end scene with Roxas and Namine, but only because it needs more description in there.

And _Zexion _tried to ruin things by going "forget Roxas, _I'm _going to talk to Namine" when I sent her off to The World That Never Was. Too bad for him I figured out how to work around it.

So, yay the chapter's done! On to Chapter 8! (Which should be infinitly more fun)

Next Chapter- _Chapter 8: Falling Apart_


	8. Chapter 8: Falling Apart

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 8: Falling Apart_

"_Is this your idea of some kind of joke?" Roxas asked his red-haired companion, glaring at him over drink. "Because this is quite possibly the most stupid thing you have ever thought of. You realize your parents are going to __**kill **__you if they find out, right?"_

"_That's why we can't let them find out," The redhead said with a wink. "So, whaddya say, buddy? It'll be fun!"_

_Roxas sighed. "Fine," he gave in. "But only if you promise you won't make it so obvious that you're flirting with me when I'm at school. Deal?"_

"_Deal!" The redhead happily said. "So, wait, does that mean I can't run up to you tomorrow and tell you how much fun I had on our date tonight?"_

"_It is not a date!" Roxas hissed, slamming his hands down on the table. "Now shut up before someone hears you! You know someone like my __**brother**__."_

_The redhead snorted and rolled his eyes. "Right, like that shrimp really poses a threat to me. I'd like to see him try."_

_Roxas narrowed his eyes and kicked him in the shin. "Do it and I'll make sure your parents find out. Have you forgotten that I have to live with him?"_

"_You can take him."_

"_**That's not the point!"**_

"_What's going on?" A pretty, brunette girl asked as she sat down beside Roxas. "What's not the point?"_

"_N-Nothing!" Roxas stuttered. "A--- was just leaving. Isn't that right?" He looked over at the redhead, who rolled his eyes and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets._

"_Yeah, fine. I see when I'm not wanted. Later."_

_

* * *

  
_

In his bed, Roxas curled up into a little ball and whimpered, tears springing to his closed eyes. "N-no more," he whispered in his sleep. "P-please…"

* * *

"_Roxas."_

_Roxas walked right past the redhead with a cold expression on his face. He said nothing and gave no sign that he even heard the older boy._

"_Roxas! Talk to me!" The redhead walked quickly after him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around and look at him. Roxas looked down at the ground instead. "Look at me, damn you!" The redhead yelled, shaking him a little. "What is wrong with you?"_

"_It's nothing," Roxas said dully, not meeting the green eyes of his friend. "It doesn't concern you."_

"_Like __**hell **__it doesn't!" The redhead forced him to look at him and gasped when he saw the lifeless look in Roxas's eyes. His grip relaxed and then let go as he took a step back in surprise. "What… what happened to you?" he asked, his voice softer. "Rox, c'mon, it's me."_

_Roxas brushed him aside. "Like I said, it's nothing," he said as he kept walking_

_The redhead scowled, torn between chasing after him and getting some answers or leaving him alone._

"_You're still here?" Roxas callously asked when the redhead caught up with him mere seconds later._

"_Of course I am. We're best friends," The redhead said, sounding rather affronted. He reached out and tugged on Roxas's arm to get him to stop walking and then he stepped in close to the blond. "You're the only person who gets me, Rox. Not even my brother can understand the things that I do, but you…" he sighed softly, reaching up to trail the back of his hand softly down Roxas's cheek. "You do. That's why you're my best friend. That's why…" he swallowed heavily as he slowly leaned his face closer to the blond. "That's why I love you, Roxas."_

_Roxas's eyes widened. "A-Axel," he murmured just before the redhead's lips touched his._

_

* * *

  
_

Roxas sat up with a gasp, tears pouring down his cheeks. He pulled his legs close to his body, buried his face into them, and sobbed.

* * *

Axel opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling of his room in Hollow Bastion. To his left, Demyx was sleeping peacefully. To his right, Sora was sleeping fitfully, tossing and turning and occasionally calling out Riku's name. And to Sora's right was Leon, also sleeping peacefully.

But Axel wasn't paying attention to any of them. He was too busy thinking about his dream - no, the memory that took the form of a dream in his sleep. With a soft sigh, he touched his fingertips to his lips, recalling the feel of Roxas's lips upon them.

'_I still can't believe I went that far,' _He thought. _'I'm really lucky that Roxas didn't punch me in the face and run off. No… I'm lucky that he still spoke to me after that. Although neither of us ever brought it up again.'_

"…back… come back, Riku!" Sora called in his sleep. "Don't go! Please… Riku… no…"

Axel rolled over on his side, facing away from Sora in an attempt to not let his cries get to him. He gave up after a few minutes and finally got up out of bed and left the room to go outside and get some fresh air.

Outside, he walked up onto the wall overlooking the rest of the town and picked out a part of the wall to lean against and stare up at the stars. "Roxas…" he whispered. "I know you're out there somewhere. I promise you, I will find you. No matter what it takes."

Footsteps rang out on the otherwise quiet town and Axel spun on his heel to face the intruder. He clenched his hands into fists, fully prepared to summon his chakrams if he needed to. He watched as first a splash of spiky blond hair appeared in the doorway of the bailey.

'_Roxas?' _He dared to hope. He held himself back and felt his heart sink when he discovered it was a blond several years older than his Roxas walking out of the bailey. Part of him was also surprised, as he recognized the blond man.

Cloud briefly stopped in his tracks and looked at Axel in surprise. Then he continued walking. "It is odd to find someone else out at this time of night," he remarked.

Axel shrugged and muttered, "Couldn't sleep."

"Ah," Cloud nodded. "Same here," he said as he paused beside Axel. "I never expected the darkness would get to one so close to the light."

Axel looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"Sora," Cloud filled in. "He's a good person. A little too cheery for my tastes though."

"He's not my light," Axel said, turning his gaze back out over the town. "I'm still looking for mine."

"Oh. That's too bad," Cloud said indifferently.

"What about you?" Axel asked. "Have you found yours?"

"Not yet."

"Oh…"

The two fell silent and watched as the first rays of sun peaked over the horizon.

"Maybe… maybe this time I'll find him," Cloud murmured to himself.

"Yeah," Axel agreed.

* * *

"He's sending me to Hollow Bastion," Roxas informed Zexion, making the older male stop in his tracks.

Zexion turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the blond male. "Is that so?"

"Mnex-" Roxas cut himself off in frustration. "_Naminé_ is there."

"So you did find out," Zexion said tonelessly. "I had wondered. You had been acting rather oddly lately. Unless that was because of your dreams."

Roxas's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?"

"I heard you talking in your sleep one night," Zexion said. "It wasn't very hard to figure out what was wrong. You are rather obvious for a nobody."

Roxas scowled. "So, did you already know that he was sending me to Hollow Bastion? You could have warned me!"

"It was merely an assumption," Zexion said with a shrug. "I did not know that he would give you the assignment today. So, what exactly does he want you to do?"

"He wants me to distract Sora and the others and take out Naminé," Roxas said.

Zexion was silent for a moment. "You realize he expects that you will fail. He knows you will recognize Mnexina, no matter the form she takes."

Roxas nodded. "Yeah…" He looked away for a moment and then looked back at Zexion in concern. "But what about you?" _'What will you do?'_

"I will remain here," Zexion answered the unspoken question. "Perhaps one day we'll meet up again. For now, I am content to continue to know what Xemnas's plans are. The information I gather may prove to be important yet."

"Maybe," Roxas said, not sounding very sure.

"You should get going," Zexion said before continuing down the hall.

Roxas watched him leave and then turned and went his own way.

_Goodbye._

_

* * *

  
_

Naminé and Kairi dashed through the swarms of heartless, Kairi swinging her floral keyblade to keep the creatures at bay. The two quickly made it to Aerith's side and Naminé cast a quick cure before they went on their way.

"Keep going!" Naminé told Kairi, her breath coming in short bursts. "I'll help Aerith!"

Kairi nodded and spun her keyblade before dashing back into the fray. The weapon slashed through the different heartless, shining in its multi-colored glory.

'_Where are they all coming from?' _she wondered. _'And where are those three? I swear, if Sora has volunteered to help someone else and that is why they're late getting here, he's getting a smack upside the head.'_

Kairi broke through the heartless to end up in the middle of them all with no sign of any of the others nearby to help her. The creatures came at her in groups of five and more, as if trying to wear her down and weaken her defenses.

'_There's no end to this!' _she thought angrily. _'This needs to end. __**Now.**__'_

Kairi slashed away the few heartless still close to her and then began gathering her energy for a broad attack on them. Before she could gather enough, a new figure leapt out of nowhere and quickly dispatched many of the heartless around them with the help of the white Dusks that accompanied him.

"Keyblades!" Kairi gasped in surprise. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Why do you have two keyblades?"

"That doesn't matter," the boy said, not at all worried about the heartless and nobodies fighting around them. He gracefully got into his fighting stance with the keyblades held parallel to each other in front of him. Then he vanished.

Kairi gasped at his speed and was barely able to bring her keyblade up in time to block his. She took a chance and pushed back away from him while jumping into the air. Using the cliff wall behind her, she maneuvered her body so her feet would land on it and then she pushed off of it to go flying back at the cloaked boy. She got in one heavy strike, which rang out in the gorge, before the boy pushed her away with an energy blast. Kairi spun through the air before landing on her feet and skidding back several feet.

"You'll have to be smarter than that," the boy growled.

Kairi narrowed her eyes and gingerly touched her side where the blast had hit. Then she stood up and pointed her keyblade up to the sky. _"Flora," _she spoke the simple spell she had learned.

The cloaked boy watched as she vanished in a flurry of flower petals as they swirled around the area. He reached out and snagged one, an amused smirk crossing his mostly covered face. "Heh, interesting. I feel like I'm dealing with Marluxia again." He quickly swung his keyblade around and blocked a strike from his left. "Pity," he told Kairi, easily pushing her back as the last of the flower petals fell to the ground. "it was a rather nice attempt."

"Shut up!" Kairi snapped. Without warning, she leapt forward and attempted a series of hits at him. Each one he dodged with ease until the last one caught his hood. Feeling victorious, Kairi ripped her keyblade through the tough material and then tried a strike from the side.

"_Wait!" _Naminé screamed as the hood fell back, revealing spiky blond hair and fierce blue eyes.

Kairi gasped and stopped her attack mid-strike. "R-Roxas," she whispered.

Naminé scrambled over to the two of them and then stopped. "What are you thinking!" she yelled at Roxas. "I don't care if it _was _an order, I want to know what you were thinking when you attacked her!"

"I was thinking that if _he _was watching I wanted to at least put on a good show before being defeated!" Roxas yelled back. "And maybe I wanted to see how much of a challenge she was! It's not often that I get a challenge anymore, you know!"

Naminé crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "That's no excuse."

"Look," Roxas growled angrily. "I don't have to explain myself to you. I--"

"Umm, excuse me?" Kairi interrupted. "I don't mean to be rude, but there's just one little problem."

"What?" Naminé asked.

"We're kind of in the middle of a battle right now," Kairi reminded them. "There are heartless everywhere."

Naminé looked around at the few heartless left and noticed that they were retreating. "Just a few stragglers," she said. "Nothing to worry about. So," she turned her attention back to Roxas. "You aren't going to start any fights with the others, are you? Because if you are, I will find a way to get my chains and I'll tie you up again!"

Roxas winced. "I hate those things. Wait, what do you mean? Did you loose your ability to control chains?"

Naminé nodded. "Yeah… I've tried a few times, but I've gotten nothing. I've been relying on my magic lately."

"Chains?" Kairi asked. "Like what you used when you fought me?"

Naminé nodded. "It's probably because I'm not a nobody anymore," she said. "But still… I wish I had kept that ability…"

"Kairi! Naminé!"

The two girls looked around for the source of the voice, who they knew was Demyx. They could recognize his cheerful voice anywhere.

"Demyx, over here!" Kairi called, waving her arm in the air.

Demyx's wild blond hair was the first to peek up over the rocks and then he hopped up on top of them and waved back to Kairi.

Naminé stifled her laughter behind her gloved hands. _'Wow, he's got it bad.'_

As Demyx scrambled over the rocks to get down to them, Sora and Axel came running after him. However, the two chose a less dangerous path to travel down to get to them.

Demyx tripped and rolled down over the last of the rocks and landed in front of an amused Kairi. She held out her hand to help him up and he gratefully took it.

"They were a little slippery," he explained to her. "That's why I-…" he stopped talking when he got a glimpse of who was standing behind the redhead. "Roxas," he said in confusion. "Roxas?"

"How do you know my name?" The shorter blond asked.

"How could I not?" Demyx replied. "Axel's always talking about you and I've lost count of how many pictures of you I've seen. It's kind of scary how many he has…"

Roxas frowned. "Axel?" he asked as if it was the very first time he was saying the name. "Who's that?" He looked to Naminé for help, but the blonde girl looked away. "Naminé, who is this 'Axel'?"

Naminé hesitated a moment too long as Axel and Sora joined up with him and caught the tail end of Roxas's question.

"Who am I? What the hell kind of question is that, Roxas?" Axel asked.

Roxas turned around and looked at the redhead with only a small spark of recognition springing to his eyes. "Are you… Axel?"

"Of course I am," Axel said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, Rox. Stop kidding around."

"Axel," Naminé spoke up. "He doesn't remember."

Axel looked confused. "Huh? What do you mean? Of course he remembers me! We're best friends! We've known each other since we were little kids! You don't just forget something like that! Oi, Roxas! That's enough screwing around."

"I'm sorry," Roxas said insensitively. "You've got the wrong guy."

* * *

"There's a few things you guys should know," Naminé spoke up once they were all gathered back at Merlin's. "Especially you, Sora."

Sora blinked in surprise. "Like what?"

Naminé took a seat in Cid's computer chair and crossed one leg over the other. "Remember how we fought Ansem last year?"

"It's not really something you can forget," Axel said. "Unless, of course, you're Sora or Roxas."

"Hey," Sora protested. "I'm not that bad! Just because I'm a little forgetful sometimes doesn't mean you can say that."

Roxas remained silent.

"That was not Ansem," Naminé said.

"_What!_" came the general outcry from the other four.

"That was the heartless of a man named Xehanort," Naminé explained. "He was an assistant of Ansem's, along with five others. He and the others betrayed Ansem, stole his work, and gave themselves to the darkness. And Xehanort renamed himself Ansem."

Roxas's eyes widened. "Xemnas," he said.

Naminé nodded. "Yeah. When he became a nobody he began calling himself Xemnas and named himself leader of Organization Thirteen."

"So, wait, we're going to have to fight him _again_," Sora asked with a groan. "And he's probably even stronger now, isn't he."

"Either that or absolutely insane," Roxas muttered.

"Now's not the time for theories," Naminé said. "There's more that you need to know."

"There's more?" Demyx asked, dreading what could come next. "What else is there? Another strange form of being led by another form of this Xehanort guy?"

Naminé smiled. "No, nothing so horrible. Remember how we all assumed Sora was the Keyblade Master? We were wrong."

"So then, who is the master of the keyblade?" Kairi asked. "Is it someone we know?"

"It's someone that Sora, Roxas, and I know," Naminé said.

Roxas scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "I refuse to accept that bastard as the Keyblade Master."

Naminé rolled her eyes. "Yes, Roxas. I know," she said. Then she looked to the others and said, "It's Riku. He's the Keyblade Master."

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed in surprise. "So he _is _okay! Have you seen him recently? How is he? Why hasn't he come to find me? Where is he?"

"I haven't seen him lately," Naminé said apologetically. "And when I had, we weren't exactly on the same side. I was the enemy and even when I was pretending to be on his side he didn't trust me. But I bet if we get to the headquarters of Organization Thirteen you'll find him there."

"But why Riku?" Kairi asked. "Why not Sora or me or even Roxas?"

"Because Riku has mastered both the dark and the light side of the keyblade," Naminé explained. "You and Sora have only ever used the light side and Roxas, despite working under Xemnas's orders, has also only used the light side."

"Then lets go find him," Sora said determinedly. "You said he's at Organization Thirteen's headquarters, right? How do we get there?"

"The only way to get there undetected is through an entrance back in Twilight Town," Naminé said. "At the old mansion."

* * *

There was an old law that still applied to each of the lands, despite the great distances between them. The law was a simple one which stated that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong. Upon arriving in Twilight Town, the group of six discovered that the law most definitely applied to them.

Naminé watched distantly as Seifer and Hayner stopped their fistfight to stare in shock at Roxas, who was glaring at both of them. "Hmm… perhaps I should have warned Sora to not land in the Sandlot," she murmured.

"What do you mean 'you don't remember'?" Hayner demanded. "I'm your best friend, man! And dumbass over there is your brother!"

Seifer shoved Hayner to the ground so he could stand in front of Roxas. "Mom and dad have been worried sick," he told him. "Stop this charade and come home."

"I told you, I don't know who you are," Roxas said. "Leave me alone."

Seifer reached out to take Roxas by the shoulder, but got his hand smacked away by Axel.

"He said he doesn't remember, so leave him alone," Axel snapped. "How about you give him a little space to breath so he might stand a chance of remembering who he is."

"Like I'm going to listen to you," Seifer growled. "He's my brother! I know what's best for him!"

Axel glared at him for a moment longer and then growled, "fine," and stomped off out of the sandlot going towards Station Heights.

"Axel," Roxas murmured as he watched him leave. A flicker of recognition sparked in his eyes and he gasped as he took off running after him. "Axel!"

"Should we go after them?" Kairi asked Demyx.

"No," Sora spoke up. "Lets leave them alone for a while. They'll meet us at the mansion."

"How do you know?" Demyx asked.

Sora smiled. "It's just a feeling I got," he said.

"Then it's probably right," Naminé said. "Shall we go? Demyx, will you lead?"

Demyx shivered but then straightened up. "Y-yeah, I guess so. It's this way…"

* * *

Roxas tiptoed up the stairs of the train station and found Axel staring at a wall with a bunch of different things carved into it. He waited a moment and then walked over to Axel to see what he was looking at. There on the wall were a few words that surprised him. Cautiously, he ran his fingertips over the words.

_Roxas and Axel_

_Best Friends Forever_

_

* * *

  
_

"_Axel, this is stupid," nine-year-old Roxas remarked._

"_Nuh-uh!" eleven-year-old Axel retorted. "This is a great idea! This way everyone will know that we're gonna be best friends forever!"_

_Roxas sighed. "I guess…"_

"_And it's not like we'll get in trouble or nothing," Axel said. "Tons of people have written all over the wall. Oh! I got an idea! How about I write your name and you write my name and 'Best Friends' and then I'll write 'Forever' and draw a heart around the whole thing."_

"_That's a stupid idea," Roxas said._

"_No it's not!" Axel protested. "Come on! I'll do whatever you want after this if you do this with me."_

"_Fine," Roxas agreed. _

_Axel beamed and began carving out Roxas's name._

_

* * *

  
_

"We really were best friends, huh?" Roxas asked softly.

Axel nodded. "Yeah," he whispered.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Got stuck in a place or two, but overall I'm happy with this chapter too. The AkuRoku scenes are my favorite. They cheer me up. And OMG! Cloud made an appearance!

There are only two chapters left, which makes me really happy. I want to get this whole thing finished up before January 1st so I can start the new year off with a fresh new story. Not sure what I'm going to work on yet... Maybe I'll just concentrate on a few one-shots for a while. I can work on **Food Stories **and **Organization Hyjinks **and maybe put in another part of **Answering Machine**. (maybe I'll actually do a one-shot _involving _an answering machine for that one. lol)

So, yeah. The next chapter has a scene that I've been _dying _to write for several months now. And for once it's not an AkuRoku scene. which reminds me... I need to add in a few cutesy moments between my other almost-couples.

Next chapter - Chapter 9: Into the Darkness


	9. Chapter 9: Into the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

_Chapter 9: Into the Darkness_

Roxas and Sora hurried through the World that Never Was together, taking turns showing off their fighting abilities in a sort of battle of skills. The others had split away from them as they came across the remaining members of the Organization. The first to leave was Demyx, who charged in to fight Xigbar after the eye-patched man shot one of his crystals toward Kairi. Next was Axel, who caught pissed off by Luxord's mightier-than-thou attitude. After him was Kairi, who stepped up to fight Saix because the man made fun of her keyblade. Finally it was down to Naminé to fight Xaldin.

"We should have stayed and helped them," Sora said as they ran up another set of stairs. "What if something happens?"

"They wanted to fight on their own," Roxas replied. "We need to get up there to Xemnas. He's the one we need to worry about. But then again, that is also worrisome," he said, pointing out the rather large crowd of heartless waiting for them up ahead.

"Heh, we can take them," Sora said confidently.

"Possibly," Roxas replied before falling silent as a sharp pain split across his head. He winced and fell a step behind but otherwise had no reaction.

Sora leapt into the fray swinging his keyblade. Roxas followed shortly after with a lightning attack dancing along the blade of Oathkeeper. It wasn't long before the two boys found themselves overwhelmed by the never-ending swarm of heartless.

"Okay," Sora panted. "Maybe I was a little wrong."

"A little?" Roxas demanded, calling up a ring of fire around him to knock away several of the heartless. "Try a lot!"

Just as Sora was about to hit his knees in exhaustion, a portal opened and a cloaked man stepped through. Sora's eyes widened at the sight of the familiar red and blue keyblade. "Riku…!" he whispered.

The man blasted away the heartless with a dark attack until the creatures began slinking away in defeat.

"Riku, wait!" Sora yelled as the cloaked man began to open a portal to leave. He ran over to him and stood on his tiptoes to push back the hood and gasped in surprise when he saw Xehanort's heartless instead. "Oh…"

The man gently pushed Sora back and then turned to walk into the portal.

"Running away _again_?" Roxas scathingly said. "I don't get how a weakling like you ever beat me. You're a _coward_, Riku," he spat angrily.

Sora looked up at the man in surprise. "Riku? Is it really you?"

He turned his face away from Sora. "I'm no one. Just a castaway from the darkness," he said as he took a step into the portal.

Sora grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Don't you dare!" he yelled as tears sprang to his eyes. "Don't you _dare _leave me again, Riku! I looked for you!" he whimpered as he fell to his knees. "I looked _everywhere _for you!"

Riku sighed and pulled Sora to his feet. "I didn't want to be found," he said in his own voice. "Not after I had given in to the darkness. Not… like this…" he gestured to the form he was in.

"Can't you change back?" Sora asked.

Riku shook his head. "Not yet. I still need the power of darkness for a while longer."

Sora nodded in understanding. "Alright, then lets go finish it. Once we defeat Xemnas, then we can go home and you can go back to your normal self, right?"

Riku nodded. "Right. The only question is," he looked over at Roxas, who had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at him. "Will _he _be able to stand fighting alongside me?"

"Just stay out of my way," Roxas snapped. "And maybe you can prove that you're worth something."

"Fine."

"Roxas! Sora!" Kairi yelled as she and Axel came running up to them. Demyx and Naminé weren't too far behind them. The two redheads stopped when they saw Sora standing near who they saw as Xehanort's heartless. That was until Naminé caught up with them and whispered, "Oh, he found Riku."

"Riku?" Kairi repeated in disbelief. "That can't be Riku."

"It's… complicated," Naminé said. "But yes, it is him." She raised her voice to address everyone. "We need to hurry. Xemnas should be just up ahead."

As the group of fighters, with the new addition of Riku, continued, a portal appeared in the path ahead of them and an Organization member with slate-gray hair stepped stumbled through it while brushing off dust which covered one sleeve.

Axel started forward with one chakram, but Naminé quickly grabbed the back of his shirt and stopped him.

"It's alright," she said. "He's with us."

Zexion cast his one blue-gray eye over the group standing before him and then nodded. "Xemnas is up ahead with King Mickey and Diz. They're doing something weird to the created Kingdom Hearts."

Naminé cursed loudly, which made Demyx jump in surprise. "That old fool," she hissed angrily. "Does he have any idea of the repercussions of disturbing the already fragile balance of that creation?"

"Obviously not," Zexion replied, sounding bored. "Perhaps we better go try and talk some sense into them."

"As if it'll work," Naminé replied as she pushed past Kairi and Axel. "But we should go up and do some damage control."

"We should hurry then."

"We?" Roxas repeated. "So you're coming with us?"

Zexion nodded.

* * *

The group of eight hurried up the next flight of stairs just in time to catch the tail end of one of Xemnas's infamous rants about his Kingdom Hearts and how Diz - or rather the real Ansem - knew nothing. Then he vanished.

"Wow, I bet he's real fun at parties," Axel muttered sarcastically. "Seriously, can he talk any slower?"

"Not now, Axel," Roxas snapped, massaging his temples as another pain pounded across his skull.

"King Mickey, my friend, I apologize for not telling you about this sooner," Ansem spoke. "I was a fool to think I could truly stop this on my own. And Roxas, I know you won't accept this but…" he looked over and met the blond's glare. "I am sorry."

Roxas scowled and looked away, not sure if he was willing to accept the apology.

The machine began buzzing more loudly as Ansem's gaze shifted to Naminé and his eyes softened. "You have grown into a beautiful young woman, just like your mother," he told her. "I only wish I had been around to see it."

"Father…" Naminé whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

"Run!" Ansem advised. "Once again I have miscalculated the strength of hearts. Soon this machine will explode and anything could happen."

Naminé started forward but was stopped by Riku, who grabbed her arm and shook his head. "Don't. He's made up his mind," he told her as he looked up at the man who helped him after he was lost in the darkness. "I forgive you."

Surprise briefly crossed Ansem's face before he nodded.

Sparks began flying off of the machine and King Mickey took that as his cue to leave and run towards the eight. Riku yelled for them to run back down the hall just as the machine and Kingdom Hearts exploded in unison, sending all of them flying face first onto the ground.

Sora was the first to recover and get up. The first thing he noticed was not the fact that Ansem had vanished but the bright silver of his best friend's hair.

"Riku!" he gleefully shouted. Then he hurried over to him as Riku got to his knees.

"H-huh?" the white-haired male questioned in confusion.

"Well, he did say anything could happen," King Mickey said.

"Anything indeed," Zexion remarked as he got to his feet. "I did not expect it would cause my vision to go blurry. And-" he stopped talking as he ran a hand over the front of his coat to brush off any dirt that may have accumulated. "What?" he whispered.

"Something wrong?" Naminé asked.

Zexion dropped his hand back to his side. "No. It's nothing," he said. "Look."

Naminé followed his gaze to where Sora and Riku were standing.

Sora nervously regarded Riku, taking in how much his friend had changed in the year they were apart. His hair was much longer than he remembered and he had gotten even taller. More confusing was the black blindfold wrapped over his eyes. "Hey, Riku, are you going to take that off?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," Riku said in surprise. He reached up to pull it off, but Sora quickly intervened.

"Wait," he said trying his best to keep his nervousness from his voice. "Let me do it." Shakily, he stood on tiptoes and reached up to the blindfold.

As Sora's fingers grazed the side of Riku's face, the older boy's heart skipped a beat. It had been so long since he'd felt anyone's touch, especially the touch of his best friend. Add in the fact that he couldn't see what Sora was doing thanks to the blindfold and it all added up to one anxious Riku. He felt Sora's soft fingers wrap around the blindfold and begin to pull down before soft lips touched his own. The feeling lasted for only a few seconds before Sora pulled away, bringing with him the blindfold. Riku slowly blinked open his aquamarine eyes to look down at his blushing friend.

"Sora…"

"Look!" Demyx's exclamation broke through their world, shattering it and making them remember that they weren't alone. "Is that him? Is that Xemnas?" he asked, pointing up the path.

Naminé nodded. "Yeah."

Sora let the blindfold fall from his hand as a determined look settle over his face. He glanced up at Riku, all traces of fear gone. "Ready?"

Riku nodded and unzipped his coat before slipping out of it, revealing that Sora wasn't the only one who had gained new clothing during their time apart.

Sora's eyes slipped over the black turtleneck and down the yellow and white vest to Riku's belly button. A dusty pink filtered over his cheeks and he looked away before hurrying up the path. Riku looked after him in surprise and then smirked and followed confidently after him.

"What the _hell _was that?" Roxas hissed.

"Tell you later," Axel said. "C'mon. Lets go catch up before Sora gets himself into trouble like always."

"Yeah," Kairi agreed. "You know he's completely hopeless without us."

Axel and Roxas led the way after Sora and Riku with Demyx, Kairi, and King Mickey right behind them with Zexion and Naminé bringing up the rear. They met no resistance from heartless or lesser nobodies, which they were thankful for.

As they walked, Naminé and Zexion discussed the need for a shield to prevent Xemnas from running away during the battle. They quickly decided they would be the ones to keep up the barrier and leave the others to fight.

"_Ah!"_

"Roxas!"

Ahead of them, Roxas fell to his knees clutching his head and Axel stopped and knelt down beside him, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Rox, talk to me! What's wrong?" Axel frantically asked.

Roxas didn't hear a word that was being said as the pain in his head grew worse and worse. He felt like his whole body was on fire and it was all he could do to keep from passing out. "M-my head," he managed to choke out. Subconsciously, he reached out for something to hold onto. He found Axel's hand and gripped it tightly. Then he closed his eyes and let himself slip off into unconsciousness.

"Hold on, Roxas," Axel whispered, pulling him closer. He looked up at Naminé pleadingly. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know," Naminé replied honestly. "Maybe it's the stress of not remembering his life before the Organization. He may be finally remembering."

"He's been complaining of headaches for a while now," Zexion said. "They began the same time his nightmares did."

"Will he be okay?" Sora asked.

He, Riku, Kairi, King Mickey, and Demyx had all stopped walking when Roxas collapsed.

"He'll be unable to fight," Naminé said. "You four should go ahead. Something has to be done about Xemnas now before he looses interest and escapes. Zexion and I are going to put up a shield to prevent him from doing that during the fight. And I'm assuming Axel will stay to protect Roxas."

Axel nodded, but all of his focus was on the frail-looking blond in his arms.

"Lets go," Riku said. "They'll be okay."

Sora nodded.

While Sora and the others finished the walk up to where Xemnas was waiting, Naminé took Zexion's hand so they could combine their magic to do the shield. She gasped and looked at him in surprise when she felt the steady pulse of his heartbeat in his wrist.

"You have a heart?" she said in wonder. "From the machine?"

"Probably," Zexion replied. "We can wonder about it later. Lets get this over with."

Naminé nodded and set her mind to establishing a strong barrier. She searched her memory for the correct spell and then began the incantation to weave their magics together.

* * *

A rumble as the castle begin collapsing on itself announced the defeat of Xemnas. Naminé and Zexion dropped the shield and then the two of them and Axel, who was carrying Roxas, rushed up to see how the others were doing.

Demyx and Kairi were dancing around in glee, singing, "We did it! We did it!" over and over again. The King was watching them with a smile on his face. Sora and Riku were off by themselves talking.

"I had given into the darkness," Zexion caught Riku saying. "How am I suppose to face everyone?"

"Like this," Sora said as he made a funny face.

Riku chuckled and ruffled Sora's hair, making the brunet smile.

"Gosh, you all did great," King Mickey remarked. "But whaddya say we get out of here. It looks like this place is going to fall apart at any second."

Riku nodded. "I'll open a portal," he said as he held out a hand. He, along with everyone else, was surprised when nothing happened.

"You don't belong in the dark realm anymore," Naminé said. "Or it may be that you're exhausted. Let me try," she said as she held out her own hand. It took a few seconds for the darkened portal to form and then she stepped aside with a please smile.

"Where's it lead?" Sora asked curiously.

Naminé smiled secretively. "You'll see," she said.

A bark and a yellow blur was followed by Axel nearly dropping Roxas as Pluto dashed past them all and through the portal.

"Where the _hell _did he come from?" Axel asked, annoyed.

King Mickey shrugged. "It's hard to tell. I'd better go get him before he runs off again," he said before walking into the portal.

"I'm going to go through and keep it open from the other side," Naminé said. "But hurry. It's hard to keep it open for very long."

Zexion and Kairi joined her on the walk through the portal with Demyx hurrying behind them after taking one last look around the strange world.

"Don't stay too long, lovebirds," Axel said teasingly as he readjusted his grip on Roxas. Then he smirked and walked through the portals.

"Ready to go home?" Sora asked.

Riku nodded. "Yeah."

The two started for the portal, but then the building they were on began tilting and crumbling away. The portal vanished as they broke into a run.

"Damn it!" Riku yelled, looking around for a different way out. His eyes landed on a glider and he quickly ran for it, leaving Sora behind. Once on the flying vehicle, he quickly circled around and picked up Sora. "Looks like our fight isn't over yet," he remarked as Sora summoned his keyblade.

"We'll have to make sure he's gone this time," Sora replied. "Lets go!"

The two zoomed off in the direction of a large mechanized dragon, knowing that no matter what happened they would be together.

* * *

Axel looked out over the ocean with Roxas still cradled in his arms. "So, this is where he's from," he said softly. "It's… nice." His musings were interrupted as Demyx scooped up Kairi and carried her past him to throw her into the water. "And now it's not."

Naminé giggled. "Leave him be. He's worried about Sora and Riku and is trying to keep preoccupied. How about you come set Roxas down in the shade?"

Axel sighed and joined her and Zexion in the shade of one of the huts that sprinkled the island they were on. Instead of setting Roxas down, he chose to sat down and keep the blond in his arms. It had been too long since he had seen his best friend and he was not about to let him go anytime soon.

"Why this place?" Zexion asked her, keeping one hand over his heart as if trying to reassure himself that it was real.

"It's Sora and Riku's home," the blonde replied. "Destiny Islands is the only safe place where we can spend as much time as we need to relax and recuperate. And I must admit, I did want to see the look on Sora's face when he found himself back here."

"I don't understand how you are the only one still able to open portals," Zexion said. "I've tried, but it doesn't work for me anymore."

Naminé shrugged. "Maybe it's my magic? I'm not really sure. I don't think I'll be able to open many more. It gets more draining each time I do so. The next one I open will probably be my last."

"If that's the case, then you should still be able to use the other powers you had as Mnexina," Zexion said, leaning his head back.

"Powers?" Naminé repeated in confusion. "Zexion, the only thing I could do was control my chains and use some Spells."

"Have you forgotten why we called you the Chain of Memory?" Zexion asked. "It was because you had the ability to take apart people's memories."

Naminé's eyes widened in surprise. "What? I don't remember that!"

"But if that's true," Axel broke into their conversation. "Then you can help Roxas's memory now, right?"

Naminé shook her head in protest. "No, it's not a good idea! Especially since I don't even remember how to do that. I could mess up his memories even worse than they are now and that would in no way be a good thing," she said before looking back at Zexion. "Why don't I remember? Tell me. I know you know! You always knew everything that went on at the castle!"

Zexion closed his eyes and sighed. "Xemnas gave you the order to first erase Roxas's memories of his time before the Organization because he kept trying to escape. He wanted Roxas's abilities in order to collect more hearts. And then he gave you the order to erase your own memories so that you wouldn't be able to erase what had been done. Thankfully, you merely faded out the memories instead of completely erasing them. The two of you will recover them in time."

"How can you be so sure?" Axel demanded.

"Because, Mnexina told me that herself when she got the order," Zexion calmly replied. "Even then we knew we couldn't trust Xemnas and his plans."

"_Hey, what's that?"_

The three of them looked out over the ocean when they heard Kairi's question just in time to see two things falling from the sky into the water.

"So, they made it back," Naminé said happily. "I knew they would."

Axel looked between the water and then down to Roxas and then back again, unsure if he wanted to lay Roxas down to go greet Sora and Riku. He flinched in surprise when he felt Naminé's cool hand on his arm.

"Go on," she told him. "We'll watch Roxas. You go welcome those two back. I'll yell for you the second he starts to wake up."

Axel nodded and slowly stood up before laying Roxas in the sand beside Naminé. He hesitated a moment and then jogged over to where Kairi and Demyx were waiting for Riku and Sora to make it back to shore.

"Took your sweet time!" he yelled to Sora once the brunet was close enough.

Sora laughed and heaved Riku to his feet once he could touch the bottom, letting the older boy put all his weight on him. "You're just jealous that you didn't get to fight him too," he joked back.

Demyx rushed forward through the water and wrapped Riku's other arm around his neck to help Sora support him. He beamed in surprise when Riku quietly thanked him and slowly the three made it up into the sand.

"What happened?" Kairi asked in concern. "You look horrible."

"I'll explain in a minute," Sora said. "I'm sure everyone wants to hear what happened. Lets get Riku over there in the shade with the others."

"I'm sure I can walk," Riku said. "You can let me go."

Sora rolled his eyes. "That's what you said the last time. And then you fell over and I had to help you up again. You're not walking anywhere until someone takes a look at your back. For all we know, Xemnas's weapon could have caused some serious damage to your spine," he said. And then he gasped. "Oh no! You could be paralyzed!"

"I'm sure he'll be just fine," Axel said reassuringly. "Right, Kairi? You and Naminé can take a look at him and if you're not sure what to do we can take him to see Aerith. She can get him fixed up in no time."

Kairi nodded unsurely. "Y-yeah."

Demyx remained silent, letting his eyes show his worry.

Soon all of them were settled in the shade. Riku was leaning against Sora, wanting to be as close as possible, and the two of them were holding arms. Axel had Roxas back in his arms and was fussing over the fact that there was sand in the blond's hair. Demyx and Kairi were sitting across from them, sitting in the warmer sand so they could dry off a little.

"So, what happened to you two?" Kairi asked.

"Well, remember how we beat Xemnas?" Sora asked. "We didn't. So the place starts to fall apart and the portal disappears and this dragon thing appears. And Xemnas is on the back of it. So we get in this flying thing and shoot lasers at it until it falls apart and crashes. But then it turned out that Xemnas was still alive so we had to go fight him and he threw skyscrapers at us while we tried to glide closer to him. So finally we beat him and we're standing there watching him scream and then he vanishes into a portal. Naturally, we follow him. So once we get through there we find him in this weird black and white coat that makes him look like an even bigger idiot and we start to fight him _again. _Has he always been that annoying?" he asked Naminé and Zexion.

Both of them nodded, so Sora continued his story. "So we're fighting him and he keeps vanishing and shooting laser lights at us and stuff so we spent most of the time trying to dodge those and his weird weapons. What was it you said they looked like, Kairi?"

"Light sabers," the red-haired girl replied.

Sora nodded. "Right, so we're trying to dodge lasers and light sabers while trying to actually hit him and then he catches me and holds me hostage," he winced when he remembered how draining it was. "But Riku rescued me. That's when things took a turn for the worst. Because while being rescued, Xemnas threw me back which left me defenseless. But when Xemnas tried to attack me, Riku blocked him with his back and Xemnas slammed him with both light sabers. But then he handed me his keyblade and I kicked Xemnas's butt and he finally faded away. For good that time. And then a portal of light opened and I helped Riku through. We ended up in another dark realm and we probably would have been stuck there if it weren't for this," he carefully pulled out a damp piece of paper and unfolded it.

"My letter!" Kairi gasped.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Kairi."

There was silence for a moment before Naminé got to her feet. "Riku, you should let me and Kairi take a look at your back. I can't guarantee we'll be able to completely heal your spine. It will take an extensive amount of healing magic to make sure everything's fine and we don't have that talent. You really should go see Aerith as soon as you can."

Riku nodded. "I'll consider it."

"Quiet!" Axel suddenly said. "Roxas is waking up!"

They all fell silent and watched as the blond haired boy drifted in and out of consciousness for a moment before abruptly sitting up and springing away from Axel. Breathing heavily from fright, he frantically looked around at everyone and then asked, "Who are you?"

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

Still have a bit to wrap up. And I couldn't resist the urge to end it on a cliffhanger for once. I don't think I've done any the entire story.

Anyway, yeah, King Mickey and Pluto completely vanished at the end of the chapter. I have an explanation; one that will be given in the next chapter when someone finally notices they're gone.

The next chapter will also be the last one, so if you have any questions be sure to ask them. It may end up being something I've forgotten to explain as the story has gone on. So next chapter will be one of explanations and things calming down and going back to (kind of) what they used to be. As well as a bit of a surprise at the very beginning.

Next chapter _- Chapter 10: World's Apart_


	10. Chapter 10: World's Apart

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney. I do, however, own Melody, Cadence, Harmony, Lyre, and Concord.

* * *

**Kioku no Kusari**

Chapter 10: World's Apart

"_Hi, Woxas," a cheerful young blonde girl greeted, sitting down beside him in the sand. She looked no older than four and had bright green eyes with a unique black spiral pattern. _

"_Hi, Rikku," Roxas said, smiling sweetly at her. She was one of the few who wasn't friends with him just because of his brother. She insisted all on her own one day that Roxas was her very best friend and hadn't left him alone since. He was surprised to say that he didn't mind it one bit._

"_Yunie and Ti'us won' let me play with them," she complained. "They meanies. So I sit here with you, 'kay?"_

"_You don't wann' go play with Sora and the other Riku?" Roxas asked. "You not gonn' have much fun sitting here with me."_

"_That okay," Rikku said. "I like sittin' with you. It fun. You listen to me. No one else does. 'sides, Wiku and Sowa gone. I don' know where they at."_

_Roxas looked alarmed. "Gone? What do you mean they're gone? They have to be somewhere!"_

_Rikku shook her head. "Nuh-uh. Yunie and Ti'us wen' to look for them. They got Wakka and Lulu and Selphie to help."_

_Roxas stood up and took Rikku's hand to help her up to her feet. "We're gonn' go look for them too," he announced. "Sora's my brother! It's my job to go find him!"_

_Rikku looked sad. "You- you let me come too, right?"_

_Roxas nodded and squeezed her hand. "Of course. C'mon, lets go show them that we can find Sora better than them."_

"'_kay!" Rikku happily chirped._

_

* * *

  
_

"Who are we?" Axel repeated in shock. "C'mon, Rox! You know who we are. You know who I am."

Roxas shook his head. "N-no," he said, scooting further back. He pulled his knees up to his chest and continued to look around at everyone as if trying to find a familiar face. Then he stopped on Sora and Riku. "Sora? Who are they? Why's girly-boy leaning on you?"

"Girly-boy?" Riku growled, sitting up suddenly. "Look who's talking!"

Sora rolled his eyes and pulled Riku back. "Cut it out. Sheesh, just because Wakka and Tidus used to call you that just to tease you doesn't mean you can snap at anyone who calls you that," he said before frowning. "Roxas, why did you call him that?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow and released his legs. "I was the first one to call him that, remember? Because he used to look like a little girl."

"I did not!" Riku protested. "And how would you know?"

"Has something fucked with your brain?" Roxas asked crossly. "How the hell do you think I know? We grew up together, dumb ass!"

"Roxas?" Axel questioned, reaching out for his friend. "C'mon, you remember me, right? I'm Axel. We're best friends."

Roxas looked at him hard for a moment, trying to recall if he had ever seen the redhead before. For a moment, there was nothing. Then a slight flicker of recognition sparked in Roxas's eyes. "Axel…" he whispered. "I-I remember. I woke up on Twilight Beach and you found me. You took me back to your house and I met your family."

Axel smiled. "That's right."

"And you promised that you would help me find my way home one day," Roxas remembered, looking around. "You kept your promise."

Axel's smile faltered. "Y-yeah. I guess so," he said. Somewhere in his heart he knew that Roxas wouldn't be returning to Twilight Town with him. "I had forgotten," he whispered. "The reason the name Destiny Island sounded familiar is because this is where you're from, Roxas. This is your home."

Naminé abruptly stood and began pacing around.

"What's wrong?" Demyx asked her.

Naminé was silent for a moment longer and then stopped pacing and looked out over the water. "I just don't understand it. Why is it that everyone's memories are so fuzzy? Particularly Roxas's and Sora's? How could they have forgotten…" she sighed. "How could _I _have forgotten? There's so much that's still unanswered. I'm so used to having all of the answers, but now… now I just don't know. I don't know what's going to happen next."

"Then you're the same as the rest of us," Zexion told her. "Come sit down and try to explain what little you do know in a way the rest of us can understand."

Naminé sighed heavily and reclaimed her spot in the sand beside Zexion. "Like I said, I don't really know what's going on. Most of what I have now are just assumptions."

"Lets hear it anyway," Kairi said. "Maybe someone will remember as you're talking."

Naminé nodded. "It's worth a try. Lets start with Roxas and Sora. Kairi, do you remember the first time you saw a photo of Roxas? You said that he and Sora could be twins because they look so much alike. Do you think the same now?"

Kairi looked unsure. "Well, there are some big similarities between them. I mean, they're the same height. And they have the same eyes and face. The hair color throws it off a little, but there's only a bit of a difference in that too. So, I guess so. Maybe not identical twins, but they easily could be."

"That's because we are," Roxas said without any sign of hesitation or doubt. "Didn't I tell you when I was a kid, Axel? That back home I had a twin brother?"

Axel thought it over for a moment. "That… was a long time ago. I can't remember. You might have, but after a while you just stopped talking about Destiny Islands. I figured you felt too uncomfortable whenever it was brought up, so I stopped talking about it too. After a while I forgot all about it."

"How come me and Riku don't remember?" Sora asked. "Would I remember having a twin brother? What about my parents? Wouldn't they remember? Why aren't there any pictures of him back home? Mom has pictures everywhere!"

"But very few of us when we were little kids," Riku said with a frown. "And remember how our yearbooks from Kindergarten and first grade went missing? Roxas's picture would have been in there."

Naminé cleared her throat to get their attention. "So, Sora and Roxas are twins. I have a hypothesis as to why Sora forgot. It may have been the stress of Roxas being gone and his mind decided to block out anything involving him so that Sora could recover. And when Sora stopped talking about him, Riku stopped bringing it up and eventually forgot all about him. Something similar may have happened with Roxas."

"That makes sense," Zexion said. "It's a mild case of amnesia resulting from the shock of being separated. But now that the two of you have met, you will most likely begin to remember more about your childhood together. The question now is, what happens next? Roxas, will you remain here or return with Axel to Twilight Town?"

Roxas looked away. "I… don't know yet," he said before getting up. "Let me think about it for a bit. I just need to think for a while."

The others watched as he walked away by himself.

"What happens now?" Kairi found herself asking.

"Now, everyone returns home and things return to normal," Naminé said. "I'm going to open up a portal to Hollow Bastion and from there you, Axel, and Demyx can return to your homes. I'm sure Cid would be happy to build a new gummi ship."

"I'm not going home," Kairi said. "I'm going to stay in Hol- Radiant Garden. That's it's real name. Aerith told me they learned it after Sora, Axel, and Demyx helped out Tron in the computer system."

"Are you sure?" Demyx asked. "You could come to Twilight Town with me and Axel for a while, if you'd like."

Kairi shook her head. "No. I've made up my mind. Besides, Radiant Garden is where I was originally from, right? I was the seventh Princess of Heart. That one report we read said that one of the princesses was sent from Radiant Garden in hopes that she would be sent to the Keyblade Master. That was me."

Naminé nodded. "That's true."

"And I can find someone to train me just in case anything like this ever happens again," Kairi continued. "I want to be able to help better next time. I can't handle the keyblade like you, Sora, or even like Riku or Roxas. And my magic is no where near where it needs to be. I want to find a better style that I can be comfortable with using."

"I'll go going to Radiant Garden as well," Zexion spoke up. "I believe I can be an asset to the people there. Perhaps I can access the remaining data in the computer and add it to what I already know to create a sort of guide on the various types of heartless and the best method to defeat them. If not, I can help re-catalogue the library. I'm sure most of that data was lost years ago."

They talked for a while longer about what they're plans were going to be once they got back to their homes. Sora laughingly joked that his mom would probably strangle him to death in her glee to see him again and how Riku had better not steal his favorite play sword.

"I will come back and _haunt _your ass," the brunet cheerfully told his friend.

"All the more reason to take it," Riku replied. "I get a fake sword and a cute ghost haunting me."

"And apparently checking out your ass," Demyx said, making everyone laugh. Everyone except Axel, who was looking up at the blond who had just returned from wherever he was thinking at.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked.

Axel nodded and stumbled to his feet before slowly making his way over to Roxas. He was completely aware of the fact that everyone was watching them, but he didn't let it bother him too badly. He would be curious too.

Roxas waited until they were out of hearing range before he began to speak. "I've decided what I'm going to do," he said.

"O-oh?" Axel nervously asked.

Roxas nodded. "You know, this place has changed a lot since I was last here. It seems like there's more stuff. Makes me wonder how much else has changed," he sighed. "Probably not much. It's a small community. I don't know how people would handle me suddenly reappearing. It'll be bad enough for Sora and Roxas."

Axel's heart skipped a beat. _'Does this mean…?' _

"I'm going home with you," Roxas said. "I don't remember much. But if Naminé says that my memories will return in time, then I believe her. But I was wondering…"

"Anything," Axel said, making Roxas look up at him in surprise.

"Anything?" Roxas asked in wonderment. "Are you always like this?"

"For you I am."

"Hmm…" Roxas paused for a moment. "Tell me what Twilight Town is like. Do I have a family there too? A brother?"

Axel nodded and began telling Roxas everything he could think of about his life in Twilight Town. He told him about his adoptive parents, Cid and Edea Almasy, and his slightly older brother, Seifer. He even told him about his three friends, Hayner, Pence, and Olette and how everyone around town knew who he was. Then he went into detail on his own family, reminding Roxas of all of the weird moments he's witnessed with the Sinclair family.

Roxas listened, asking a question or two whenever he got confused. Once or twice he smiled and recounted something that Axel had forgotten all about. Many of them were embarrassing situations Axel had gotten himself into.

They later rejoin the others and spend the remainder of the night talking on the beach. In the morning they split up and begin the journey back to their worlds.

* * *

Demyx cautiously opened the door to his house and peered inside the dark hallway. "Hello?" he called. "Melody? Lyre? Cadence? Harmony? Concord?"

A small blond boy appeared at the end of the hall. He squealed loudly and ran away shouting, "He's back! Demyx is back! Hurry, hurry!"

Demyx slipped off his shoes and slipped quietly and quickly down the hall, clutching his bag to his chest. If all of his little cousins were going to jump out and attack him in greeting like always, he wasn't going to let them get a hold of his bag before he was ready to give them their gifts. He was surprised when he go to the end of the hall with no resistance and so looked into the living room to see what was going on.

"Happy birthday!" his sister and four cousins sang in chorus, making him jump back in surprise.

"M-my birthday?" he asked. "Is is really? I completely forgot."

"Open my pwesent first!" the youngest cousin, Concord, said as he picked up a box in blue almost too big for him to carry.

Demyx hurried forward and accepted the package.

"Its from me too!" piped up Concord's twin sister, Harmony.

"Thanks you two," Demyx said, sitting down with the box. "I still can't believe I forgot my own birthday! Oh, I'm so excited!"

His cousins giggled as he enthusiastically ripped into the wrapping paper, theatrically throwing the pieces into the air. Melody rolled her eyes, vowing to make him clean up the mess later.

"Oh wow!" Demyx exclaimed as he opened up the box. "It's a mini-harp! I can't believe it! Hey, you think I can make water dance with this too? It would be so much easier to use than that heavy sitar."

"Go try, go try!" Cadence, who looked like a miniature Demyx, chanted. "Please, Demy?"

Demyx smiled brightly. "Of course! C'mon, lets go out to the backyard real quick and then I'll come back in and open the rest. I also have presents for you guys."

"Yay! Presents!" Lyre said with a toothy smile. "I love it when you get us presents!"

Amidst cheers, Demyx led the way to the backyard and proceeded to figure out how to control water with his brand new harp. It worked, but it was no where near as polished as his skills with his sitar.

"You'll just have to practice, practice, practice," Cadence said, mimicking something Demyx once said to him. "Right?"

Demyx smiled and ruffled his hair. "That's right. Hey, lets go back inside. I've still got more presents to open!"

* * *

Roxas stood nervously on the front porch of his house with Axel right by his side. "I don't know about this…" he said.

"It'll be okay," Axel said as he took Roxas's hand. "I'll be right here to help you. If it's too much I'll see if I can stay the night or take you back to my place. Reno's an asshole, but he'll back off if I tell him too."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "That's bull and you know it."

Axel grinned. "See, you're remembering already! You have nothing to worry about," he said before reaching forward and knocking on the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Almasy! I have a present for yooouuu!"

The door was jerked open by none other than Seifer, who glared at Axel and started to yell at him about knocking repetitively on the door. Then he noticed Roxas.

"R-Roxas," he whispered in surprise. "You're back? You're really back?" He stepped forward and hugged Roxas tightly, not noticing the way Roxas stiffened in surprise. Then he abruptly pulled away and dragged Roxas into the house shouting, "Mom! Dad! Roxas is back! Axel found him!"

Axel quickly followed after them to take Roxas's hand again. He could already tell it was going to be a long night.

* * *

"A Master Witch?" Merlin questioned. "Well, I do believe there is one over in Haven City. Morgan, I believe they call her. Yes, Morgan the White Witch."

Naminé looked thoughtful. "Haven City," she repeated. "It's kind of like Traverse Town, right?"

"In a way," Merlin replied. "It's quite a bit bigger. You'll have to be careful to not get lost while searching for her. Come over here and lets see if we can find its location."

While Naminé and Merlin searched through the huge book of magic, Kairi walked in the front door in search of Aerith. She paused briefly to say "hello" to the two magic users and then continued to the kitchen, where she found the brunette making cookies.

"Hello, Kairi," Aerith greeted. "Would you give me a hand with these?"

"Of course," Kairi said, walking over to help her. "What should I do?"

"Just stir in these raisins. Leon's not a fan of sweet things, so I always make sure to make him oatmeal raisin or walnut cookies," Aerith said.

Kairi nodded and set to work pouring in some raisins and stirring them into the cookie batter. "Aerith, can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Aerith said as she bent over to check on a tray of cookies in the oven.

"What do you think of me finding someone who can help me learn to fight better?" Kairi asked.

Aerith straightened up and smiled at her. "I think it's a wonderful idea. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"That's part of my problem. I'm not sure who I should ask. I figured you might know someone," Kairi said.

"How about you go ask Tifa? She's an old friend of Cloud's," Aerith said. "I think she's over at the Great Maw looking for clue's to where Cloud went. You see, it seems he vanished while fighting with Sephiroth," she sighed sadly. "I hope he's alright…"

"I'm sure he'll be okay," Kairi said as she stirred in the last of the raisins. "Is there anything else I can do?"

"Nope. You can go ahead and go talk to her," Aerith said. "I will warn you, she may recruit you to help her search for Cloud as a condition of her training you."

Kairi set the spoon against the bowl and wiped her hands off on a towel. "That's okay. I like Cloud," she said. "Thanks a bunch, Aerith!"

"Hold on a moment," Aerith said. "Have you seen Leon and Yuffie?"

"Uh-huh, they were down at the computer with Zexion the last time I saw them," Kairi replied as she left.

"Thanks!" Aerith called after her. Then she returned to baking cookies.

* * *

Sora sighed in contentment and snuggled closer to Riku. The two of them had spent another day and night on the play island, having no way to get back to the main island so they could go home. They had considered for a moment building a raft to take them to the main island, but Riku pointed out there would be no way to steer it and that they would have to rely on the wind. So instead they decided to wait for one of their friends to journey out to the island in their rowboat.

"Mmm… Riku…" Sora murmured when he felt the white-haired teen's arms tighten around him. He heard something that sounded almost like a snicker, but passed it off as Riku snoring.

"Ahhh! My eyes are burning!"

"Wakka!"

"Whoa!"

_-splash-_

Sora and Riku quickly awoke and sat up to stare at the sight before them. There was Tidus, laughing his butt off because Selphie had shoved Wakka off of the paopu island and into the water. Selphie herself was giggling like mad and was holding a video camera that most likely belonged to her boyfriend, Irvine. Yuna and Rikku were near her, trying to hide the fact that they were giggling at the sight the two made.

"So tell us, is this what the two of you have been doing this whole time?" Selphie asked teasingly. "And would you mind saying it loud enough to pick up on the camera?"

Riku scowled. "Turn it off, Selphie."

"Where'd you get that thing, anyway?" Sora asked curiously.

Selphie giggled. "Irvy of course!"

"Odd, considering Irvine swore he'd never let you use one again," Riku remarked as he got to his feet. He held out a hand and helped Sora up too before wincing as pain raced up his spine.

Sora frowned and stepped closer just in case Riku would need his support. Naminé and Kairi had fixed his spine the best they could, but as Naminé said, it wasn't fully healed.

"That's because Irvine finally got up the nerve to ask her out," Tidus said. "I warned him not too, but _nooo_ he didn't listen. Now he'll never get rid of her."

Selphie playfully shoved him off the paopu island and then pointed the camera to watch his fall. "Whoopsie," she cheerfully said. "Say 'hi' to Wakka for me!"

The moment she finished that sentence, the camera was plucked from her hands and she felt someone push her off. She squealed loudly and held down the edge of her jumper to keep it from flying up.

"Nice one, Rikku!" Tidus yelled up to the cute blonde girl.

She giggled cutely and waved to him and she focused the camera on Selphie, who was soaking wet and glaring up at her.

Sora and Riku couldn't help but laugh at their antics. It felt good to finally be home.

* * *

THE END

* * *

So, that's it. That's the end. And I realize now that I didn't answer where Mickey and Pluto vanished to, so I'll address that here. Namine opened up one gate for the two of them to return to Disney castle and then the one that would take them to Destiny Island.

Personally, I love the ending with Sora and Riku the best. It was the scene that flowed the best when I was typing it up. Plus I love the idea of Selphie having a video camera to tape everyone's antics. I almost didn't have it up on the paopu island, but I'm glad I did. Pushing people off of stuff is fun! So, yeah. I put Irvine on Destiny Island if for no other reason that I think it would be hilarious to see him in his cowboy get-up while in an island setting.

My other favorite part about this chapter was making up the names of Demyx's cousins. I almost named one of them "Ben" figuring it would be ironic to have one of the names not music related. But then I found out that if you take the 'x' out of Demyx's name, (Demy) it becomes a music related name. So then I changed "Ben" to "Concord". Fun, fun.

Now I'm looking forward to a nice little break of typing out chapter ideas and working on one-shots. I have a holiday-themed one I'm hoping to get done before the end of December. We'll see how that turns out.


End file.
